Today is the fourth of July. In regards to patriotism, two quotes by Mark Twain succinctly describe my own attitudes:
“Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people’s countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood of his hands and works for ‘the universal brotherhood of man’- with his mouth.”
“Patriotism is usually the refuge of the scoundrel. The Patriot is the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollerin’ about.”
July 4th is suppossed to be a holiday that celebrates freedom. Freedom is just one more word that has become meaningless in the vacuous culture that defines the twenty first century United States. But last night I learned about a song that expresses the authentic meaning of freedom.
“Left” politics goes way back in my family. My grandfather, who was a deeply religious and observant Jewish kabbalist (long before “Esther” made it popular) used to subscribe to the socialist paper in Antwerp. Last night my mother told me that when she was seventeen (a year before she and her family fled Belgium after the Nazi invasion) she and a girlfriend went to a rally organized by young Jewish socialist anarchists. The purpose of the rally was to recruit volunteers to go to Spain to fight Franco. They sang many “revolutionary songs” and one of them has been going through her head these past few weeks. She asked me if I could find the lyrics for her. The name of the song is “Die Gedanken Sind Frei” – “Thoughts are Free.”
This is an old German folksong that can be traced back to the 12th Century. It grew to prominence as a protest song during the Peasant Wars of 1524-5, a series of uprisings directed against rapacious taxation by landlords. Martin Luther himself condemned the peasants. This song became the peasant’s rallying cry.
Apparently the song rose to popularity again in the period before WWII, which explains why it was sung at the rally my mother attended. It seems the song was banned by the Nazis. The words in German, with an English and French translation follow.
You can listen to the song here which is also a tribute to Sophie Scholl of The White Rose German resistance group. Scholl purportedly played the song to her father, when he was in prison for making a critical remark about Hitler. A modern version from the Brazilian Girls, which is amazing, can be seen here in a live performance.
Die Gedanken sind frei,
Wer kann sie erraten,
Sie fliehen vorbei,
Wie nchtliche Schatten.
Kein Mensch kann sie wissen,
Kein Jger erschieen
Mit Pulver und Blei.
Die Gedanken sind frei!
Ich denke was ich will
Und was mich beglcket,
Doch alles in der Still’,
Und wie es sich schicket.
Mein Wunsch, mein Begehren
Kann niemand verwehren,
Es bleibet dabei:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
Und sperrt man mich ein
In finsteren Kerker,
Ich spotte der Pein
Und menschlicher Werke.
Denn meine Gedanken
Zerreien die Schranken
Und Mauern entzwei,
Die Gedanken sind frei!
Drum will ich auf immer
Den Sorgen entsagen
Und will dich auch nimmer
Mit Willen verklagen.
Man kann ja im Herzen
Stets lachen und scherzen
Und denken dabei:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
Thoughts are free
who could guess what they might be?
They fly by as shadows in the night.
No human can know them,
no hunter could kill them
with his powder and lead;
The truth is that
thoughts are free.
I think what I will,
of what gives me happiness
quietly within my rightful silence.
There can never be anyone
who could argue with my wishes
and my desires -
it will always be true
that thoughts are free.
And if someone locks me up
in the dark dungeons,
their acts are in vain,
because my thoughts
tear down the barriers
and the stone walls – they are free.
That is why I will
abstain from sorrows
and will no longer harm myself with misery,
for in your heart you can always laugh
and as you do, you can think:
thoughts are free.
This is the English version that was popularized by Pete Seeger and was song as a leftist protest song during the McCarthy era:
Die Gedanken sind frei
My thoughts freely flower,
Die Gedanken sind frei
My thoughts give me power.
No scholar can map them,
No hunter can trap them,
No man can deny:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
I think as I please
And this gives me pleasure,
My conscience decrees,
This right I must treasure;
My thoughts will not cater
To duke or dictator,
No man can deny–
Die Gedanken sind frei!
And if tyrants take me
And throw me in prison
My thoughts will burst free,
Like blossoms in season.
Foundations will crumble,
The structure will tumble,
And free men will cry:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
Neither trouble or pain
Will ever touch me again.
No good comes of fretting,
My hope’s in forgetting.
Within myself still
I can think as I will,
But I laugh, do not cry:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
Je pense ce que je veux,
elles sont libres, les penses,
et ce qui rend heureux.
Personne ne peut les arrter.
Je le fais en silence,
mes penses peuvent s’envoler
ma convenance
comme une ombre dans l’obscurit.
Mon dsir, ma volont,
aucun homme ne peut les deviner.
Personne ne peut les refuser,
aucun chasseur les tuer
C’est ma ralit
Aucun fusil assassiner
la libert de penser,
la libert de penser.
Et si l’on me jette
dans un cachot profond,
toujours il me reste
ma vrit au fond.
Aucun mur ne peut lui rsister:
libert de penser.
Aucune frontire l’arrter:
“die Gedanken sind frei”
c’est ma ralit.
Libert de penser,
la libert de penser.
La libert de penser,
die Gedanken sind frei.
I just received this email from Tamar Earnest:
The lyrics to a song that my mother sang to me as a child have been rolling around in my brain, demanding to be written down. So here it is. My Hebrew spelling is not great and my nikud (insertion of the vowels) is abysmal, so any corrections would be appreciated. My mother grew up in Poland and was a member of Hashomer Ha’tsa’ir. She loved to sing.
I was searching the Internet to see if the Hebrew lyrics could be found. I came upon your blog of July 4th, 2005. You provided another translation and interpretation of the original song.
I am attaching the PDF I just made FYI. From my mother z”l to yours via a strange coincidence.
May we find freedom within ourselves and learn to share it in peace and serenity.
Here is the PDF:
Die Gedanken sind frei – Hebrew lyrics
Tags: Activism, Feature, Human Rights, Poetry