{"id":314917,"date":"2026-04-13T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=314917"},"modified":"2026-04-11T19:27:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:27:46","slug":"to-posterity-1938","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/04\/to-posterity-1938\/","title":{"rendered":"To Posterity (1938)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I came into the cities in a time of disorder<br \/>\nAs hunger reigned.<br \/>\nI came among men in a time of turmoil<br \/>\nAnd I rose up with them.<br \/>\nAnd so passed<br \/>\nThe time given to me on earth.<\/p>\n<p>I ate my food between slaughters.<br \/>\nI lay down to sleep among murderers.<br \/>\nI tended to love with abandon.<br \/>\nI looked upon nature with impatience.<br \/>\nAnd so passed<br \/>\nThe time given to me on earth<\/p>\n<p>In my time streets led into a swamp.<br \/>\nMy language betrayed me to the slaughterer.<br \/>\nThere was little I could do. But without me<br \/>\nThe rulers sat more securely, or so I hoped.<br \/>\nAnd so passed<br \/>\nThe time given to me on earth.<\/p>\n<p>The powers were so limited. The goal<br \/>\nLay far in the distance<br \/>\nIt could clearly be seen although even I<br \/>\nCould hardly hope to reach it.<br \/>\nAnd so passed<br \/>\nThe time given to me on earth.<\/p>\n<p>You, who shall resurface following the flood<br \/>\nIn which we have perished,<br \/>\nContemplate \u2013<br \/>\nWhen you speak of our weaknesses,<br \/>\nAlso the dark time<br \/>\nThat you have escaped.<br \/>\nFor we went forth, changing our country more frequently than our shoes<br \/>\nThrough the class warfare, despairing<br \/>\nThat there was only injustice and no outrage<\/p>\n<p>And yet we know well<br \/>\nEven hatred of vileness<br \/>\nDistorts a man\u2019s features.<br \/>\nEven anger at injustice<br \/>\nMakes hoarse his voice.<br \/>\nAh, we<br \/>\nWho sought to prepare the soil for kindness<br \/>\nCould not ourselves be kind.<\/p>\n<p>__________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/bertolt-Brecht.jpeg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-314918\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/bertolt-Brecht.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"92\" height=\"92\" \/><\/a>Bertolt Brecht (1898\u20131956) was a highly influential German playwright, poet, and theater practitioner who revolutionized 20th-century drama through his development of &#8220;Epic Theatre&#8221;. A committed Marxist, his plays aimed to provoke critical thought rather than emotional catharsis, often utilizing the &#8220;alienation effect&#8221; (Verfremdungseffekt) to encourage audiences to objectively analyze social and political realities.\u00a0<\/em>[Britannica)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I came into the cities in a time of disorder<br \/>\nAs hunger reigned.<br \/>\nI came among men in a time of turmoil<br \/>\nAnd I rose up with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":314918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[3973,868],"class_list":["post-314917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-bertolt-brecht","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314919,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314917\/revisions\/314919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}