QUESTIONS FROM A WORKER 
WHO READS

by Bertolt Brecht

statue of Brecht in Berlin (photo  HS 97)
 
 
 
 

Berlin (photo HS 97) 
 
 
 
 
 

SONGS OF IRISH LABOUR
about the project
about the CD: songs
about the CD: sales
 
 

 

SONGS pages: 
(including text, photos, mp2 sound files and soon video)
The Red Flag: 
the song, 
the man,
the monument 
Bread & Roses
Talk to Me of Freedom
 
 

 


 

Who built Thebes of the 7 gates ?
In the books you will read the names of kings.
Did the kings 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 its builders live ?
Where, the evening that the Great 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 palaces for its inhabitants ?
Even in fabled Atlantis, the night that the ocean engulfed it,
The drowning still cried out for their slaves.
The young Alexander conquered India.
Was he alone ?
Caesar defeated the Gauls.
Did he not even have a cook with him ?
Philip of Spain wept when his armada went down.
Was he the only one to weep ? 
Frederick the 2nd won the 7 Years War.
Who else won it ?
Every page a victory.
Who cooked the feast for the victors ? 
Every 10 years a great man.
Who paid the bill ?
So many reports. 
So many questions.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Critical and Cultural Perspectives on Science
World Views       History of Ideas
Marxism       Helena Sheehan
Has the Red Flag Fallen ?
European Socialism: A Blind Alley or A Long and Winding Road ?
Grand Narratives Then and Now
  DCU    School of Communications

Bread & Roses Productions
 
E-mail: helena.sheehan@dcu.ie