on brecht

German poetry is too complicated for me because my German is meager,
not to say poor. Usually I will not understand poems
written in that language, and, no matter how eager
I am, I hardly ever get anything out of them.

There is one exception, though.

I read a poem by Bertolt Brecht the other day,
called „Der Radwechsel“:

Ich sitze am Strassenrand
Der Fahrer wechselt das Rad.
Ich bin nicht gerne, wo ich herkomme.
Ich bin nicht gerne, wo ich hinfahre.
Warum sehe ich den Radwechsel
Mit Ungeduld?

(Brecht, I am happy to discover, is not only the poet of the masses,
he is also the poet of students of German as a second language)

As I read him, Brecht is simply saying this: I do not feel at ease where I am going to; I do not feel at ease where I am coming from. And yet, sitting by the roadside, I impatiently look at the driver, as he changes the wheel of the car that drives me to (but also away from) the place where I am never in peace with myself. I do not have reasons to be impatient, I am not looking forward to get there "wo ich hinfare", but I wouldn't care much to go back to the place "wo ich herkomme". Why would I feel this Ungeduld?

I was happy to understand the German in the poem.
I was sad to understand the poem.