Es ist an der Zeit [English translation]
Es ist an der Zeit [English translation]
Far in the Champagne in midsummer green
there where poppy flowers bloom between grave crosses
there the grasses whisper and shake themselves effortlessly
in the wind, which gently sweeps over the graveyard
At your cross I find dead soldier,
not your name, only numbers and someone has painted
the number 1916,
and you were not even 19 years old.
Yes, they have also already deceived you similarly
just as they do with us still today,
and you have given them everything :
your strength, your youth, your life.
Have you dead soldier, once loved a girl?
Surely not, because only here, where there is peace,
could tenderness and trust flourish,
were a soldier, about to die, not be too young.
Perhaps you thought to yourself, I will fall soon,
I will take my pleasure, as it comes, with force.
To this end you were determined, you have however then
been ashamed of yourself and never did it.
Soldier, did you go believing and gladly to your death?
or have you too doubtfully, bitterly, roughly
not recognized your true enemy until the end?
I hope it hit you a clean shot?
Or has a bullet torn your limbs to pieces,
have you cried out to your mother until the last,
have you on your leg stumps run further,
and your grave, does it hold more than a leg, a hand?
There remained only the cross as the single trace/proof
of your life, but hear my oath,
to fight for peace and to be vigilant:
If mankind once again falls for lies here
then it can come to pass, that soon no one lives anymore,
no one, who will bury the billions of dead
However I find more and more people willing,
to prevent this battle, it's high time.
- Artist:Hannes Wader