The poem
I am twenty-four led to slaughter I survived.
The following are empty synonyms: man and beast love and hate friend and foe darkness and light.
The way of killing men and beasts is the same I've seen it: truckfuls of chopped-up men who will not be saved.
Ideas are mere words: virtue and crime truth and lies beauty and ugliness courage and cowardice.
Virtue and crime weigh the same I've seen it: in a man who was both criminal and virtuous.
I seek a teacher and a master may he restore my sight hearing and speech may he again name objects and ideas may he separate darkness from light.
I am twenty-four led to slaughter I survived.
what is this poem talking about? it sounds as if war. being born in '08 and being 24 years old that only makes the year '36. the only war at that time was the spanish revolution and the chinese/japanese war. what else is he talking about?
I think he may be taking on a persona in the poem. Perhaps he's writing as a soldier in WWII.
I am a belgian student of slavic filology and must tell you that this poem was actually written by Tadeusz RÓŻEWICZ, a polish poet. His poetics are deeply affected by his traumatic experiences during WW II: in his opinion, all 'traditional' poetry had become impossible, even immoral after WW II.
ok well i think the same but how do u know it was not by him thou?
Wow. What a glorious poem. Absolutely beautiful. He addresses that one maddening principal of war (entirely) that it goes against everything we know, or should know, against everything that we were taught or should be taught. The narrator talks about a confusion, where because of the war he can't tell these things apart any more, they are all the same because of the war. Men and animals, love and hate, light and darkness, truth and lies. Now remember the man is only 24. At the end he asks for a teacher, another teacher, to help him figure it all out. He's helpless, and so confused, he needs to separate light from darkness, truth from lies. It's beautiful.