An Optimistic Ditty (Enzensberger)

[flyingrat42.livejournal.com]

More Watchmen. What else is new?

eugenetapdance said on his journal recently that Watchmen to him is about "optimism in the face of understanding", and belief in the essential goodness of the world. This came to mind...

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An Optimistic Ditty
by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, translated by Reinhold Grimm

It does happen, now and then,
that somebody cries for help.
At once, someone else leaps into
the water, absolutely for nothing.

In the thick of fattest capitalism,
the glinting fire truck turns the corner
and quenches the flames, or silver shines
from the beggar's hat all of a sudden.

Every morning the streets are teeming
with people who run back and forth, without
drawn knives, just at their leisure,
in search of milk and radishes.

As in the midst of peace.

A glorious spectacle.