Erich Mühsam: The prisoner

The prisoner

I haven’t learned it my life days long,
to go along with foreign force.
Now they have imprisoned me,
Removed me from home, wife and work.
But if they would slew me:
To comply means to lie!

I shall? I must? – But I don’t want
to those lords pleasure.
I don’t do what a reeve of drudgery tells.
Rebels know better obligation,
than to go along with the bay.
To comply means to lie!

The state, who tooks away my freedom,
who follows, to betrays me,
me in the jail without any shame.
I shall submit myself to the paragraphs stuff
even in bonds.
To comply means to lie!

Put the sinner up against the wall!
So it can satisfy you well.
But rather my hand will wither
before in slave’s lack of judgement
I should go along with the scourge.
To comply means to lie!

But if once the chain brakes,
I may to the fullest
breathe the sun – tyranny!
Then I will shout it in the public: Be free!
Unlearn it, to comply!
To comply means to lie!