FAITH OF A REFUGEE

I SHALL witness the day— Maybe I must use strong glasses to read the news

Or my grown-up son will help me from the chair To look thro' the windows, trembling with joy, Or it may even be my grandson has to read the papers

Aloud to me, old man who is blind—

Anyhow : I shall witness the day When, thro' the capitals of Europe, Where only the police were whistling,

Where even the memory of me, of my friends, was a crime,

Where who laughed was a cynic

And who cried, had to cry in the dark— I shall witness the day

When an army of stern-minded soldiers Carrying the banners of justice Stream thro' the thousand cities, Marching and marching and marching, Growing, growing and growing,

Whilst from the hills and the mines and the woods

(Where they lived like the hunted deer) Millions are joining the army Of a new, of a better, world.

I shall witness the day When those who smashed the frontiers And built hundreds more, Who enslaved the peoples of Europe,

Frenzied shall look for the frontiers, to escape,

For a slave who will hide them.

But there will be no frontier but the ocean, There will be not one slave among millions, Nothing but Europe: one thundering stern-minded army, Tho' speaking a hundred of tongues ; The world understands these soldiers, Looking bewildering and strange They will have the faces of brothers.

Everyone everywhere who hates the Swastika Will know as I do: It's my army!

Do not wonder I shall witness the day. And you. WIELAND HERZFELDb.