Thoughts on war: Hannes Wader – Es ist an der Zeit (“The time has come“) (Published on 03/07/2024)
One of the best-known German songs against the war is “Es ist an der Zeit” (“The time has come“ ) by Hannes Wader. Melodically and in terms of content based on the song “No Man’s Land” by Eric Bogle from 1980, which also became known as “The Green Fields of France”, it describes a visit to the grave of a young soldier who died in France in the First World War and was buried there, and in unsparing words denounces the political mechanisms of ruthlessly burning in particular young people on battlefields under false pretenses. The song ends with the hope that more and more people will be prepared to oppose this and prevent another world war.
The German version was first released in 1980 on Hannes Wader’s album “Es ist an der Zeit”; the original “No Man’s Land” by Eric Bogle was first released on his album “Now I’m easy” (1980).
The German version sung jointly by Hannes Wader, Reinhard Mey and Konstantin Wecker in 2014 is particularly worth listening to.
Es ist an der Zeit (“The time has come“)
(Translated from German language without implementing the rhyme scheme)
Far in Champagne in the midsummer green,
where poppies bloom between grave crosses,
the grasses whisper and sway gently
in the wind that gently sweeps over the burial ground.
On your cross I find, dead soldier,
not your name, only numbers, and someone has
painted the number nineteen hundred and sixteen,
and you were not even nineteen years old.
Yes, they have already lied to you in the same way,
just like they still do to us today.
And you gave them everything – your strength, your youth, your life.
Have you, dead soldier, ever loved a girl?
Certainly not, because only where there is peace
can tenderness and trust flourish.
You were a soldier to die, not to be young.
Perhaps you thought I will soon fall,
Take my pleasure, as it comes, by force.
You were determined to do that, but then you were
ashamed of yourself and never did it.
Yes, they have already lied to you in the same way …
Soldier, did you go to your death believing and gladly?
Or did you, desperate, embittered, brutalized,
not recognize your real enemy until the very end?
I hope you were hit by a clean shot.
Or did a bullet tear your limbs apart?
Did you scream for your mother until the end?
Have you kept running on the stumps of your legs,
and your grave, does it hold more than a leg, a hand?
Yes, they have already lied to you in the same way …
Only the cross remained as the only trace
of your life, but hear my oath,
to fight for peace and to be vigilant.
If mankind falls for lies again,
then it may happen that soon no one will be left alive,
no one to bury the billions of dead.
But more and more people have long been willing to do so,
to prevent this war, the time has come.
Yes, they have already lied to you in the same way …
(Head picture:
Cross on the German Military Cemetery Kruchten-Schwarzenbruch,
inscribed “Unbekannt” (“Unknown”), September 2022)
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