All Quiet on the Western Front. Erich Maria Remarque

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      12

      kantorek would say that we stood on the thresh-old of life. and so it would seem. we had as yet taken no root. the war swept us away. for the others, the older men, it is but an interruption. they are able to think beyond it. we, however, have been gripped by it and do not know what the end may be. we know only that in some strange and melancholy way we have become a waste- land. all the same, we are not often sad.

      though mu ̈ller would be delighted to have kemmerich’s boots, he is really quite as sympathetic as another who might not bear to think of such a thing forgrief. he merely sees things clearly.

      were kemmerich able to make any use of the boots, mu ̈ller would rather go bare-foot over barbed wire thanscheme to get hold of them.

      once it was different. when we went to the district commandant to enlist, we were a class of twenty young men, many of whom proudly shaved for the first time before going to the barracks. we had no definite plans for the future.

      we have lost all other consider-ations, because they are artificial. only the facts are real and important to us. and good boots are scarce.

      we learned that a bright button is weightier than four volumes of schopenhauer.

      13

      we were trained in the army for ten weeks and in this time more profoundly influenced than by ten years at school.

      at first astonished, then embittered, and finally indifferent, we recognized that what matters is not the mind but the boot brush, not intelligence but the system, not freedom but drill.

      kropp, mu ̈ller, kemmerich, and I went to No. 9 platoon under Corporal himmelstoss. he had the reputation of being the strictest disciplinarian in the camp and was proud of it. he was a small, undersized fellow with a foxy, waxed mustache, who had seen twenty years’ service and was in civil life a postman.

      we became soldiers with eagerness and enthusiasm, but they have done everything to knock that out of us.

      he had a special dislike of kropp, tjaden, westhus, and myself, because he sensed a quiet defiance.

      unacceptable...

      ...make that bedagain!

      prepare to advance, advance......lie

      down!

      14

      under his orders I have scrubbed out the corpo-rals' mess with a tooth- brush.

      kropp and I have been given the job of clearing the barracks-square of snow with a hand-broom and a dust pan.

      for six weeks I did guard every sunday and was hut-orderly for the same lengh of time.

      when he reported us, the company commander laughed at him and told him he ought to keep his eyes open.

      at bayonet practice I had constantly to fight with himmelstoss, I with a heavy iron weapon, bayonet covered with its scabbard, whilst he had a handy wooden one with which he easily struck my arms till they were black and blue.

      once I became so infuriated that I ran at him blindly and gave him a mighty jab in the stomach...

      ...and knocked him down.

      15

      one sunday as kropp and I were lugging a latrine bucket on a pole across the barracks-yard, himmelstoss came by, all polished up and spry for going out.

      he raved, but the limit had been reached.

      himmelstoss saw that we meant it, and went off saying...

      that was the end of his authority. he tried it on once more in the ploughed field, but we moved so slowly that he became desperate.

      in spite of ourselves we tripped and emptied the bucket over his leg.

      how do you like the job?

      that meansclink!

      there’ll be an inquiry first, and then we’ll unload.

      we’ll show you up, corporal.

      you’ll drink this!

      ...advance...

      ...lie down!

      prepare to advance...

      after that he left us in peace. he did indeed always refer to us as swine, but there was, nev-ertheless, a certain respect in his tone.

      16

      we became hard, suspicious, pitiless, vicious, tough--and that was good; for these attributes were what we lacked. had we gone into the trenches without this period of training most of us would certainly have gone mad.

      I sit by kEmmerich’s bed. he is sinking steadily. around us is great commotion. a hospi-tal train has arrived and the wounded fit to be moved are being selected. the doctor passes by kemmerich’s bed without once looking at him.

      by far the most important result was that it awak-ened in us a strong, practical sense of esprit de corps, which in the field developed into the finest thing that arose out of the war--comradeship.

      it might have been both legs. wege-ler lost his right arm. that’s much worse. besides, you will be going home.

      they have amputated my leg.

      do youthink so?

      I don’tthink so.

      I wanted to become a for-ester once.

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