Die Gedanken Sind Frei (Our Thoughts Are Free)
Die Gedanken sind frei
My thoughts freely flower,
Die Gedanken sind frei
My thoughts give me power.
No scholar can map them,
No hunter can trap them,
No man can deny:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
I think as I please
And this gives me pleasure,
My conscience decrees,
This right I must treasure;
My thoughts will not cater
To duke or dictator,
No man can deny--
Die Gedanken sind frei!
And if tyrants take me
And throw me in prison
My thoughts will burst free,
Like blossoms in season.
Foundations will crumble,
The structure will tumble,
And free men will cry:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
Neither trouble or pain
Will ever touch me again.
No good comes of fretting,
My hope's in forgetting.
Within myself still
I can think as I will,
But I laugh, do not cry:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
Commentary
This one’s not really a war poem, but it struck me as being relevant to the times:
(Old German song, translation by Arthur Kevess and Gerda Lerner)
I first discovered this poem in what was my favourite book as a child: ‘From Anna’ by Jean Little. It tells the story of a German family in the 1930s who are digusted with Hitler and Nazism and leave the Fatherland for Canada.
This song was apparently very popular immediately before and during World War II. At a time when all freedoms were being attacked, Germans clung to the fact that their thoughts were still free. It was a source of hope in the concentration camps and an weapon of defiance to the resistance. (In fact, I found this translation on a website about the student protest group, The White Rose).
The poem has a long history of protest. It can be traced back to the 12th Century when the minstrel (!) Dietmar von Aist sang “Die Gedanken, die sind ledig frei”.
It appeared in its current form during the Peasant Wars of 1524-5, a series of rural uprisings directed against unbearable taxation. Both Lutheran and Catholic landlords cut the rebels down: Martin Luther himself condemned the peasants. But they didn’t really care – after all, their thoughts were still free.
I guess it’s still the same today. The manipulation of ideas and thoughts, whether in Baghdad or Washington, will ultimately fail, because “Die gedanken sind frei!”
— Priscilla
PS: Interestingly, there are several fairly different versions and translations of this song. If you want to read it in the original German, or listen to the song set to music, check out this site:
http://members.aol.com/masksfaces/whiterose/free.html
And here’s a not-so-popular version that some people say is more authentic:
Thoughts are free!
Who can guess them?
They fly along like nightly treasures.
No man can know them
No hunter can shoot them
With powder and lead
Thoughts are free!
I think about what I want
and what makes me happy
But everything quietly,
and just how it comes.
To my wish and desire
Nobody can oppose,
It stays this way:
Thoughts are free!
And if they lock me in a dark dungeon
That is something that can be forgiven
‘Cause my thoughts tear up the bars and walls. Thoughts are free!
I think about what I want
and what makes me happy …
And if they lock me in a dark dungeon …
I love wine, my girl most of all,
Only me she pleases best
I am not alone
With my glass of wine
My girl is with me:
Thoughts are free!
That’s why I will never worry anymore
And I will never tease myself
with whims anymore
Because in one’s heart
One can keep laughing and joking
While thinking
Thoughts are free!
— Priscilla
Show 6 commentsHide comments
From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Mallika Chellappa · 1 March 2003
At first blush, this poem looks so idealistic! But let’s look closer:
There is a close relationship between free, invaluable and valueless, just as there is between the Everything and the Nothing (+infinity and -infinity are at the same point on the number line)
So - as the comic book goes, “words are cheap - let’s have action” - and thoughts are even cheaper. However, there is no doubt that the poem has a message - and it is that one should remain true to one’s thoughts and values, no matter what the prevailing political and cultural climate rewards.
A case in point is how, during the Irangate years, most US immigrants were willing to toe the establishment line and blame Don Regan for Ron’s shortcomings. Even in this current imbroglio - one will find the born US citizen more often rasies his/her voice against the establishment, the first generation immigrants do not dare to do so - and this leads to subtle thought censorship. Mallika
Acynta · 4 March 2003
Partly this is because born citizens naturally feel more “entitled” to complain/protest. Partly, it’s also because people who come to the US from places that are a lot worse have a more informed perspective on what a really horrible government is like. Or at the very least appreciate the good things that born citizens take for granted. Such as the Bill of Rights.
carlynn
Marcus Brinkmann · 29 August 2004
The english version posted here is not a very close translation, neither in word nor in spirit or meaning. The main reason is that it introduces several new concepts that go beyond the content of the original, and that it is bold and specific where the original is subtle and broad.
Priscilla posted a more literal translation in her post scriptum, which doesn’t rhyme and can’t be sung. But it gives you a much better idea on the original. There are a couple of simple translation errors in there, though, which I want to clear up for anybody interested:
“They fly along like nightly” shadows, not “treasures”.
“and just how it comes.” should be “and how it becomes”, ie, in a way that is proper and polite.
“To my wish and desire Nobody can oppose,” comes out a bit wrong. The original has the meaning that nobody can deny you the act of wishing and desiring something. They can oppose all they want to your wish, but they can’t stop you from wishing.
“And if they lock me in a dark dungeon That is something that can be forgiven” is a simple translation mistake (“vergeblich” was mixed up with the verb “vergeben”). Literally it is: “And if they lock me in the dark dungeon, these deeds are all purely in vain.”
The stanza about the girl and the wine seems to be odd, I’d think it is an addition that was made in a later century by students or guys from the YMCA or so. In any case, “Only me she pleases best” should be “Only she pleases me best”.
“And I will never tease myself with whims anymore” is probably ok. The original is an oldish German idiom which means about the same.
Lorna Collier · 16 September 2004
I recently co-authored a memoir about a young German farm girl growing up in WWII and the subsequent Russian occupation, titled “Tilli’s Story: My Thoughts Are Free.” The title came from this song, which Tilli remembered her mother humming so often during the war as a way of signaling her opposition to Hitler – the only protest she could make. We have been playing versions of the song at our book-signings and passing along lyric sheets and info about it, gleaned from websites such as this one.
Tilli’s translation of the first verse is as follows:
My thoughts are free, who can guess them?
They fly by, like nightly shadows.
No one can guess them, no hunter can shoot them. It’s a fact, my thoughts are free.
I think what I want and what makes me happy,
But orderly and quietly to myself.
Because my thoughts tear down fortresses and walls, My thoughts are free.
I’ve read the song was banned by the Nazis. Is this true?
Thanks!
Lorna
******************* Lorna Collier
Author, “Tilli’s Story: My Thoughts Are Free” www.mythoughtsarefree.com
Freelance writer/editor
Bonnie Couchman · 8 December 2006
Ah !
Thank you for posting this song & the translations! I have been facinated with it since I heard it on a movie about WWII as a child.
It depicted prisoners of war, how hery kept sane & their attempts to escape. This song was sung to infuriate the Germans after a particularly nasty punishment.
I managed to catch most of the words during a viewing, translated what my command of german permitted & asked my Mom to help with the rest.
The more accurate translation and the comments from Marcus Brinkmann are definately closer to the intent.
She had a good deal of difficulty expressing the idiom in english, & couldn’t remember a few of the more esoteric words, so I dispared of ever getting it right.
One of these days I’ll smooth it so it fits the tune. Rhyme at the same time is hopeless.
Bonnie
Marcy · 12 January 2008
Dear Priscilla Jebaraj:
I am so happy to find the poem Die Gedanken Sind Frei listed under World War II songs. I didn’t know the correct spelling and am composing a poem for my fathers 87th Birthday mentioning it. I was a little girl (12 years old) and saw a World War II movie. There was a castle on a mountain top surrounded by water. High official undercover American, English and German men were kept captive there. I am not sure of its title . Maybe Richard Whitmark was in it, but I am not sure since it was so long ago.
The men had to always gather in the court yard outside to be accounted for. When the hardships were tearing at their hearts an English or American plane flew overhead. Slowly and quietly at first, then loud and fervently they say this song. I was so taken by their emotions that I asked my Dad (a World War II German Jew survivor) what they were saying. He explained that no matter what someone does to you, your thoughts are always free.
I made him teach me the whole song that night and I have never forgotten it.
Appreciatively,
Marcy Hamberg