A Poem for Gaza from Germany

By Antje Stehn

We who have allowed
the return of the banality of evil
the return of those
who feel no regret in killing and
slaughtering innocents
while following orders
we who have allowed the frozen words
of our leaders
in shreds of half truth
to celebrate the murderers
of an entire population
in that strip of land
where there is no escape
How will we erase our sins
as history follows us
relentlessly
like an angry dog
with puzzled and
unsettling eyes
that keep asking
How could this happen?
Wie konnte das passieren?

In Italian

Come è potuto accadere?
Voi, che lasciate rinascere
la banalità del male
uccidete senza rimorso
solo per obbedire a un comando.
e noi, che concediamo ai nostri capi
dalle voci fredde e spezzate
servili e piegati
di allinearsi a chi sta cancellando la vita
su quella fragile striscia di terra
la Storia ci inseguirà
come un cane randagio
che tentiamo di scacciare
ci seguirà con occhi malati
incomprensibili
e ci domanderà
wie konnte das passieren?
come è potuto accadere?

In German

Wie konnten wir die Rückkehr
der Banalität des Bösen erlauben?
Menschen gehorchen
mörderischen Befehlen blind
begehen Massaker
unsagbare
ohne Ende
und uns Regierende
drücken ihnen die Waffen
in die Hand
behaftet mit dem Geruch von
Komplizenschaft
Geschichte wiederholt sich nicht
aber manchmal reimt sie sich
und wieder wird die Vergangenheit uns
verfolgen
wie ein aufsässiger Hund
den wir nicht verjagen können
mit kranken Augen wird sie uns fragen
Wie konnte das passieren?
Wie konnte das passieren?

Antje Stehn, German poet, visual artist, art curator, who resides in Italy. Member of German Exile – PEN, co-editor of the poetry Magazine TamTamBumBum and member of the directive committee of the Piccolo Museo della Poesia of Piacenza, Italy. Since 2020 she is curating different art-poetry project as “Rucksack a Global Poetry Patchwork” (2020), “Hair in the Wind“(2023)in solidarity with Iranian Woman and ”The view of the other from a different point of view” (2024) in solidarity with GAZA,all together ttey involved more than 300 international poets. She published the bilingual German-Italian book Grotesk, (2022) ed. Expeditionen and the Book Guerra, in (2024).