He informed himself of the dispute, noting only, "Yes, we had heavy losses yesterday." On the right side of the meadow, a large communal latrine has been built, a covered and durable structure. Klosterberg.” It is very strange that the unhappiness of the world is so often brought about by little men.
He thinks of the lace-up boots and means to be on the spot. Many of us got sick from it; Wolf actually died of inflammation of the lung. It is now the most beautiful time of the year, when the corn ripens; at night the fields look like mother of pearl in the sunlight.
THREE
34;It is a bad business!--Then we must pull on the belt and wait till the rations come up in the morning." I am sure that if he had been planted in the middle of the desert, in half an hour he would have collected a dinner with roast meat, dates and wine. The question revives Kropp, especially when he hears that there is no more beer in the canteen.
It's simply amazing, I tell you, that regular tommy is sticking it all up here in the front line. Tjaden has a special grudge against Himmelstoss, because of the way he trained him in the barracks. But what could he do to us if he didn't recognize us and we left early in the morning.
FOUR
A wall belonging to a house lying by the road becomes visible. He is swallowed up by the general commotion ahead: Kat listens, "There's going to be a bombing tonight." It is in constant motion, interrupted by bursts of flame from the battery nozzles.
I don't know if it's morning or evening, I lie in the pale cradle of twilight and hear soft words coming, soft and near - I'm crying. It is the groaning of the world, it is the martyred creation, wild with anguish, filled with terror and groaning. The fence is destroyed, the light rail tracks are torn up and rise sharply into the air in great arcs.
FIVE
Then he pulls a spoon from the top of his boot and reaches into Kropp's garbage can. 34;Sleep softly under shell fire." The sound of the gunfire from the front penetrates into our retreat. We sit across from each other, Kat and I, two soldiers in shabby coats, chasing a goose in the middle of the night to cook
The outline of the huts is above us at dawn like a dark, deep sleep. Nevertheless, the rest of the bread on the floor before morning has been carried away. Slowly the gray light trickles into the post and pales the gleam of the shells.
One lies silently in the corner and eats, the other, an older man of the new streak, sobs; twice he was thrown over the parapet by the explosion. We grab the hand grenades, throw them in front of the dugout and jump after them. Under one of the helmets a dark pointed beard and two eyes focused on me.
The image is alarmingly close; it touches me before dissolving into the light of the next star shell. We sat among them on the bank of the stream, dangling our feet in the clear, swift water. The pure scent of the water and the melody of the wind in the poplars kept us going.
On the front there is no silence and the curse of the front reaches so far that we never pass it. We are able to bring in most of the wounded who are not too far away. They are one of the new regiments, consisting almost entirely of young fellows who have just been called up.
SEVEN
But as long as we have to stay here in the field, the front line days, when they are over, sink into us like a stone; they are too sad for us to think about immediately. It's all rotten what they put in the war news about the good humor of the troops, how they organize dances almost before they are out of the front line. The objects in the room are touched and transformed by it, they become isolated, and I feel almost amazed at the sight of my clear skin when the light of the lamp falls on it and the cool, brown hand passes over it.
How different it is from the conditions in the soldiers' brothels, where we are allowed to go, and where we have to wait in long lines. I sit by her bed, and through the window the chestnut trees in the beer garden opposite glow in brown and gold. I would like to punch him in the face, but control myself, because my leave depends on it.
It is nice to sit quietly somewhere, in the beer garden for example, under the chestnut trees by the ski alley. A glass of beer is in front of me, I'm used to drinking in the army. There are no bombings or bombings, the children of the house play in the ski alley and the dog rests his head on my knee.
Because they all come back to the same thing, how bad it goes and how good it goes; one thinks it is so, the other that; and yet they are always absorbed in the things which constitute their existence. There is no doubt that they are sitting in the canteen, or perhaps swimming - soon they will have to climb back to the front line. My hands rest on the arms of the couch; now I'm at home and I pull my legs up so I can sit comfortably in the corner on the arms of the sofa.
He was killed three months before he would have been called up in the usual way. It's a big service and people line up early in the morning and wait. On the landing I stumble upon my pack, which is already set up because I have to leave early in the morning.
EIGHT
I often get so lost in the play of soft light and transparent shadow that I can hardly hear the commands. It is when you are alone that you begin to observe and love nature. We don't know each other enough to do more than joke around and play poker or take a nap in the evening.
A wire fence separates him from us, but the prisoners are still coming to us. It is painful to watch their movement, to see how they beg for food. Their backs, their necks are bent, their knees droop, their heads droop, as they stretch out their hands and beg in the few words of German they know — they beg in those soft, deep, musical voices that are like warm furnaces and cozy rooms at home.
They are standing by the barbed wire; sometimes one leaves and then another immediately takes his place in line. But as it is, behind them I see only the suffering of the creature, the terrible melancholy of life and the ruthlessness of the people. Now is not the time, but I will not lose these thoughts, I will keep them, lock them away until the war is over.
My heart beats fast: this is the goal, the great, the only goal I thought of in the trenches; that I. In the evening they stand again by the wire fence and the wind comes down on them from the beech forest. It is now definitely cancer, she is already in the hospital and will be operated on soon.
At eight o'clock in the evening he wants to eat some miserable garbage they get in exchange for theirs.
NINE
I walk around until the company comes back early in the morning, gray, dirty, sullen and gloomy. There is Tjaden, there is Müller, who blows his nose, and there is Kat and Kropp. Before we turn in, I bring out the rest of the potato cakes and jam so they can have some too.
There is a rumor going around that there might be peace, but the other story is more likely: that we are heading to Russia. For eight days you would think we were in a base camp, there is so much hassle and fuss. Everyone is grumpy and touchy, we are not happy with all this preening, let alone the parades in full dress.
They are both so elevated that they probably don't insist on standing strictly at attention. 34;You have a maggot in your brain, Tjaden, only you run quickly together to the latrine and find you. 34;Yes, well, yes," pursued Albert, and I saw that he meant to drive me into a corner, "but our professors and ministers and newspapers say we are the only ones who are right, and let us hope so; -- but the French professors and ministers and newspapers say that the right is on their side, what about that now?”.
I never saw a Frenchman before I came here, and it will be the same with the majority of Frenchmen as far as we are concerned. 34; There are other people behind it who profit from the war, that's for sure," growls Detering.
