THE WORKINGMAN ASKS QUESTIONS AS HE READS

Bertolt Brecht

Who built the Seven Gates of Thebes? In books you find only the names of kings.Did the kings carry those heavy blocks of stone?

And Babylon, destroyed so often.Who built it again so many times? In Lima,

That shining city of gold, where did the workers live?And after the Great Wall of China was finished

What happened to the masons who made it? RomeIs filled with triumphant arches. Who built them?

Over whom did the Caesars triumph?Poets sing of Byzantium.

But did it have palaces for its workers?Even in legendary Atlantis, as it sank in the sea,

Drowning men screamed in the night for their slaves.Young Alexander conquered India. All alone?

Caesar beat the Gauls.He must have had a cook along, at least.

Philip of Spain wept as his fleetSank in the ocean. Who else wept?

Frederick the Great won the Seven Years’ War.Were there any other winners?

Victories on every page.Who cooked the victory banquets?

Every ten years, another great man.So many facts.

So many questions.