Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-13
GERMANY HAS HER
ALAN SEEGERS
A Little Book of Verse Found by
the French on Dead Boche
Protests Against Barbarity
By HENRI BAZIN

Stafr Correspondent of the Evening Ledger In
France.
PARIS May 20.
TN ALL my Journeys over the seven seas,
l. in lands of flowers and lands Of snow,
in each and every trip to the front, I have
noted vastly more than I have written. It's
an old, old habit Ingrained within 1t Is
the vague idea of future use, of some pur-
pose beyond the ephemeral Indeed, here
I've dreamed fine dreams. A few, very
few have been realized. But the great mass
rests awaiting. This tale, in the homage
It pays a dead man, stands out like a
beacon light, cries for expression, l bow
to its urging and put It into words.
stood in a German abri within the
broken Hlndenburg line. With the trench
its steep steps led to, 1t had been taken
in a morning attack, an attack successfully
launched before / left Paris nine hours
before The electric wires I'm it's stout rough
tn1bered ceiling had been cut and were
not yet repaired. 1t was early twilight, and
the day, soon to die, struggled feebly down
within a modern burrow of war.
Close to the bottom step, a captain of
chasseurs-a-pied was looking intently at a
little book, a little common notebook bound
cheap, coarse paper, red-lned. My lieuten-
ant escort had presented me.
Bon soir Monsieur. Lieutenant you read
German. Translate this"
He Loved the Lilac
Taking the book from his superior off,
cer the lieutenant looked at It for a mo-
ment and said
There are rough notes memoranda OF
places passed through, short description
of a village occupied. And verse. A poem
entitled 'Maiengruss,' Greeting to May
Listen:
In garden, a garden lost to those who held
tree. It ,trembles in the gentle breeze Of a
cred with green clusters, clusters innumera-
BILE, waiting for the sun. waiting eagerly
spriDStlme sPThSt@O ali tS" 100 recent %to!1Sr Yet,
but f%TSom yOfs memory G6 sI,n sPrinSti%e when my
the blue sky; springtime when my heart
6eoFe 1G lilac 7 9ree HeT S9SGn In
this this lost lost gS,rden g, den ! sec Sc Il again. here With
Eds stET23se familiar lilac about ute to bloom and
send AGAIN my heart TO tRnt ot5eF heaTs
sorOss wide land. enwrappod in its unbloomed
"And there is another. 'Soldatengrab'-
the soldiers grave. Where did you find 1t
my captain?"
| let us go out into the dying day." re-
| piled the officer. We silently mounted thu
| steep steps 10 the trench, a trench hall
demolished. filled still with the mark o.
recent battle As we ascended felt some
thing of a strangely familiar perfume In tn
unrhymed translated words, something o.
an ancient lied, Perhaps more. Some
thing Of the great and little song OF Heine
And about me, war; death, tortured France
the sound of great guns and the spring
time the pristine balmy air of early May
Read, lieutenant" We were leaninI
against the wall Of the trench. close to
gether.
see two birds flying in company through
the air. They speaking. And as they
speak listen. One has wings OF gray and
the other a breast Of red. And the gray bird
| says: 'See see the man, the man with the
gun. His brother lies In an unknown grave
In a strange land. among enemies" And the
redbreast answers; ''All those who are dead
II may. And as they rest they are in the
and the gray bird flew faster and far away,
But the redbreast stopped before me. and OF
my soldiers bread fed 1t crumbs.
AS the lieutenant ceased we looked a
each other. and the question came agaiI
where did you fnd It, my captain?"
"a poilu brought It me as you arrived
Call him. We must see. This Boche wa
a poet" And he added pensively; "Perhap
he might have been a great poet He ring
trua.~