"Song of a German Mother" by Bertolt Brecht

   Here's the piercing 1942 poem by Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) about Nazism's rise and consequences; I've known it since childhood, as it was featured in one of my history textbooks; The German original goes by "Lied einer deutschen Mutter". Here's a moving translation I found online ( slightly edited; original version can be accessed through the source link at the bottom):


       Song of a German Mother

My son, your shiny boots and
Brown shirt were a present from me:
If I’d known then what I know now,
I’d have hanged myself from a tree;

My son, when I saw your hand raised
In the Hitler salute that first day,
I didn’t know those who saluted
Would see their hand wither away.

My son, I can hear your voice speaking:
Of a race of heroes it tells.
I didn’t know, guess or see that
You worked in their torture cells.

My son, when I saw you marching
In Hitler’s victourious train,
I didn’t know he who marched off then
Would never come back again.

My son, you told me our country
Was about to come into its own;
I didn’t know all it would come to
Was ashes and bloodstained stone.

I saw you wearing your brown shirt.
I should have protested aloud;
For I did not know then what I now know:
It was your burial shroud.

 Source: http://ofbattleandmen.tumblr.com/page/9