A response to the Nazi book burnings, in "To Posterity" (1939) as translated by H. R. Hays (1947)
Contesto: Do not treat me in this fashion. Don't leave me out. Have I not
Always spoken the truth in my books? And now
You treat me like a liar! I order you:
Burn me!
Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary men.
Ah, what an age it is
When to speak of trees is almost a crime
For it is a kind of silence about injustice!
Bertolt Brecht: Frasi in inglese (pagina 2)
Bertolt Brecht era drammaturgo, poeta e regista teatrale tedesco. Frasi in inglese.
Bertolt Brecht:
196
frasi
128
Mi piace
“Show interest in her goodness — for no one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.”
Bertolt Brecht
The Good Person of Szechwan
Bezeig du Interesse an ihrer Güte, denn keiner kann lang gut sein, wenn nicht Güte verlangt wird.
http://books.google.com/books?id=zEhJAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Bezeig+du+Interesse+an+ihrer+G%C3%BCte+denn+keiner+kann+lang+gut+sein+wenn+nicht+G%C3%BCte+verlangt+wird%22&pg=PA116#v=onepage
First God, in Scene 1a, p. 38
The Good Person of Sezuan (1943)
“You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization.”
The Sergeant, in Scene 1
Mother Courage and Her Children (1939)
Contesto: What they could do with round here is a good war. What else can you expect with peace running wild all over the place? You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization.
A response to the Nazi book burnings, in "To Posterity" (1939) as translated by H. R. Hays (1947)
Contesto: Do not treat me in this fashion. Don't leave me out. Have I not
Always spoken the truth in my books? And now
You treat me like a liar! I order you:
Burn me!
Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary men.
Ah, what an age it is
When to speak of trees is almost a crime
For it is a kind of silence about injustice!
Bertolt Brecht
L'opera da tre soldi
"The Moritat of Mackie the Knife" in Prologue, p. 3
Translation note: A "moritat" (a word meaning both "muderous deed" and "ballad") is a street song telling of murderous crimes.
Lotte Lenya, "Foreword", p. xii
Variant translation: Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear,
And he shows them pearly white
Just a jack-knife has Macheath dear
And he keeps it out of sight.
Marc Blitzstein translation; largely used for Louis Armstrong's and Bobby Darin's pop renditions of "The Ballad of Mack the Knife"
The Threepenny Opera (1928)
“In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will also be singing
About the dark times.”
In den finsteren Zeiten
Wird da auch gesungen werden?
Da wird auch gesungen werden.
Von den finsteren Zeiten.
"Motto to the 'Svendborg Poems' " [Motto der 'Svendborger Gedichte] (1939), trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 320
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
“What is the burgling of a bank to the founding of a bank?”
Bertolt Brecht
L'opera da tre soldi
Macheath, in Act 3, scene 3, p. 92
The Threepenny Opera (1928)
“Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life”
Bertolt Brecht
The Mother
Pelagea Vlasova in Scene 10
The Mother (1930)
Variante: Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.
Origine: Jewish Wife and Other Short Plays: Includes: In Search of Justice; Informer; Elephant Calf; Measures Taken; Exception and the Rule; Salzburg Dance of Death
“Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.”
Weil die Dinge sind, wie sie sind, werden die Dinge nicht so bleiben wie sie sind.
As quoted in Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (1976) by John Gordon Burke and Ned Kehde, p. 224, also in The Book of Positive Quotations (2007) by John Cook, p. 390
“Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”
Bertolt Brecht
libro
Vita di Galileo
Scene 12, p. 115
Variant translations: Pity the country that needs heroes.
Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes
Origine: Andrea: Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero.
Galileo: No, Andrea: Unhappy is the land that needs a hero. [Unglücklich das Land, das Helden nötig hat. ]
Origine: Poems 1913-1956
Origine: Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic