Who built the seven gates of Thebes? <br />The books are filled with names of kings. <br />Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone? <br />And Babylon, so many times destroyed. <br />Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima's houses, <br />That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it? <br />In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished <br />Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome <br />Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom <br />Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song. <br />Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend <br />The night the seas rushed in, <br />The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves. <br /> <br />Young Alexander conquered India. <br />He alone? <br />Caesar beat the Gauls. <br />Was there not even a cook in his army? <br />Phillip of Spain wept as his fleet <br />was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears? <br />Frederick the Greek triumphed in the Seven Years War. <br />Who triumphed with him? <br /> <br />Each page a victory <br />At whose expense the victory ball? <br />Every ten years a great man, <br />Who paid the piper? <br /> <br />So many particulars. <br />So many questions.<br /><br />Bertolt Brecht<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-worker-reads-history/
