BRECHT, B.

, FLCHTLINGSGESPRCHE (REFUGEE CONVERSATIONS)

Bertolt Brecht's Refugee Conversations (trans. Charles Senger, unpublished), written in Finland in
1940-41 and probably also in Los Angeles over the next couple of years, is a series of dialogues
around different themes between Ziffel, a former scientist, and Kalle, a former laborer. In one
section, Ziffel begins reading his memoirs to Kalle in the train station bar where they always meet.

ZIFFEL:
"Vesper bells of Santa Anna. Getting beer. The coachman in the Klauckestrasse has
hung himself. Little Marie sat on a stone. Knifing pains in the finger joints, in the
elbow, in the chin, in the head, in the shoulder. The knife can also go off course into
the ground. He wrote something with chalk on the stable door. The police are
informed. Five pfennig pieces. The five pfennig piece was thrown at the house wall.
How far it bounces off. He bounced off and left her. The murderers are in the dog
house. With chalk, where he got her? Pimples. Short, pointed stakes are driven into
the ground, are hewed out by other stakes. [...] Indians, Teutons, Russians, Japanese,
knights, Napoleon, Bavarians, Romans. Tutor. You old yokel, you should have
known. Dog. Dung-head. Shit-in-the-pants. Little ass. Fop, rotten. Dandy. Ox. Camel.
Blockhead. Swine. Milksop. Clodhopper. Sozi. Dummy. Whore. Bastard. Chicken
breast. Varicose vein. (Varicose peter). Hump. Begging forbidden. Caution: in the
fourth house there lives a police agent. [...] The bad element cribs. By fours. Hands
out of pockets, cuckold! The bicycle. Let the gum dry. A box on the ears, not yet. The
hour of great contempt in the lending library. [...] Far away in the south. Even on the
city wall. At the end boatman and boat. God's people. And have a nice day."

KALLE:
How do you put it all together? Do you simply write whatever comes into your head?

ZIFFEL:
No problem. I arrange it. But with the material. Would you like to hear another page?

KALLE:
Sure.

ZIFFEL:
"It feels good, but the consequences. The periods. Little Marie sat on Rose Hill and
picked blueberries. Cold farmers. [...] Look in my eyes! From behind! Or French. [...]
But is there a God? Go in for sports like the others! Either he's good or he's
omnipotent. [...] Faust. In every German's satchel. Dying singing. Is Shakespeare
English? We Germans are the most cultured people. The German School Teacher won
the War of Seventy. Gas-poisoning and mens sana. As a scientist in the mount of
venus. Peace to his ashes, he perservered. Bismarck was musically inclined. God is
with the righteous, they know not what they do. The stronger batallions help
themselves. Artificial honey is more nourishing, since bee honey is too expensive for
mass nourishment. Science has discovered. Conquered three antagonistic discoveries.
The final victory is the best. Offerings will be received after the performance."

KALLE:
I found it nice how it moves toward the war.
ZIFFEL:
Do you think I should put it into chapters?

KALLE:
Why?

ZIFFEL:
It looks too modern. Modern is outdated.

KALLE:
You can't worry about that. Humankind as such is outdated too. Thinking is outdated,
life is outdated, eating is outdated. I think you can write what you want because
printing is also outdated.