2. Questions from a Worker Who Reads

(Questions from a Worker Who Reads by Bertolt Brecht)

Who built Thebes of the seven gates?
In the book you will find the the name of Kings
Did the king haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished
Who raised it up so many times? In what houses
Of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?
Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished
Did the masons go? Great Rome
Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song
Only places for its inhabitants? Even in fabled Atlantis
The night the ocean engulfed it
The drowning still bawled for their slaves
The young Alexander conquered India.
Was he alone?
Caesar beat theGauls
Did he not have even a cook with him?
Philip of Spain went when his armada
Went down. Was he the only one to weep?
Frederick the second won the Seven Year War. Who
Else won it?
Every page a victory, who cooked the feast for the victors? Every ten
Years a great man. Who paid the bill?
So many reports, so many questions?