05 - Chapter 5. All Quiet on the Western Front.

05 - Chapter 5. All Quiet on the Western Front.  
Considered by many to be the greatest war novel of all time, All Quiet on the Western Front is the chronicle of a German soldier fighting in the trenches of World War I, including the severe physical suffering and emotional trauma that will leave many unable to readjust to civilian life afterward.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter five of All Quiet on the Western Front by
Eric Maria Remark, translated by Arthur Wesley Ween. This LibriVox
recording is in the public domain. Chapter five. Killing each
separate louse is a tedious business when a man has hundreds.

(00:21):
The little beasts are hard, and the everlasting cracking with
one's finger nails very soon becomes wearisome. So Tian has
rigged up the lid of a boot polished tin with
a piece of wire over the lighted stump of a candle.
The lice are simply thrown into this little pan crack,
and they're done for. We sit around with our shirts
on our knees, our bodies naked to the warm air,

(00:44):
and our hands at work. Haya has a particularly fine
brand of Laus. They have a red cross on their heads.
He suggests that he brought them back with him from
the hospital at Tourout, where they attended personally on a
surgeon general. He says he means to use the fat
that slowly accumulates in the tin lid for polishing his boots,

(01:05):
and roars with laughter for half an hour at his
own joke. But he hasn't much success to day. We
are too preoccupied with another affair. The rumor has materialized.
Himmelstau says, come he appeared yesterday. We've already heard the
well known voice. He seems to have overdone it with

(01:26):
a couple of young recruits on the plowed field at home,
and unknown to him, the son of the local magistrate
was watching that cooked his goose. He will meet some
surprises here. Teadin has been meditating for hours what to
say to him. Haya gazes thoughtfully at his great paws
and winks at me. The thrashing was the high water

(01:49):
mark of his life, he tells me. He often dreams
of it. Krop and Muller are amusing themselves from somewhere
or other, probably the pioneer cook house Crop has bagged
for himself a mess tin full of beans. Muller squints
hungrily into it, but checks himself and says, Albert, what

(02:09):
will you do if it were suddenly peacetime again? There
won't be any civil life, says Albert bluntly. Well, but
if persists, Muller, what would you do? Clear out of this?
Growls Krop, of course, and then what get drunk? Says Albert.

(02:30):
Don't talk Rot, I mean seriously, so do, I says, Crop,
what else should a man do? Kat becomes interested. He
let his tribute on Crop's tin of beans, swallows some,
then considers for a while and says, you might get
drunk first, of course, but then you take the next

(02:50):
train for home and mother. Peacetime man Albert, He fumbles
in his oilcloth pocketbook for a photograph and suddenly show
it all round my old people. Then he puts it
back and swears, damned lousy war. It's all very well
for you to talk. I tell him you've a wife

(03:12):
and children, true, he nods, And I have to see
to it that they've something to eat. We laugh. They
won't lack for that cat. You'd scrounch it from somewhere.
Muller is insatiable and gives himself no peace. He wakes
Hyavestus out of his dream. Hia, what would you do

(03:33):
if it was peacetime? Give you a kick in the
backside for the way you talk? I say, how does
it come about? Exactly? How does the cowshit come on
the roof? Retorts Muller laconically, and turns to Hyavestus again.
It is too much for Haya. He shakes his freckled head.

(03:54):
You mean when the war's over exactly You've said it. Well,
there be women, of course, eh Hia licks his lips.
Sure by jove, yes, says Hia, his face melting. Then
I'd grab some good buxom dame, some real kitchen wench
with plenty to get hold of, you know, and jump

(04:16):
straight into bed just you think, boys, a real feather
bed with a spring mattress. I wouldn't put trousers on
again for a week. Everyone is silent. The picture is
too good. Our flesh creeps. At last, Muller pulls himself
together and says, and then what a pause? Then Haya explains,

(04:40):
rather awkwardly, if I were a non com I'd stay
with the Prussians and serve out my time. Hia, you've
got a screw loose, surely, I say, have you ever
dug pete? He retorts, good naturedly, you try it. Then
he pulls a spoon of the top of his boot

(05:01):
and reaches over into crops. Mess tin. It can't be
worse than digging trenches, I venture, Hya chews and grins.
It lasts longer, though, and there's no getting out of
it either. But man, surely it's better at home some ways,
he says, and with open mouth sinks into a daydream.

(05:23):
You can see what he is thinking. There is the
mean but little hut on the moors, the hard work
on the heath from morning till night in the heat,
the miserable pay, the dirty laborers close in the army.
In peace time, you've nothing to trouble about. He goes on.
Your food's found every day or else you kick up

(05:44):
a row. You've got a bed every week, clean underwear
like a perfect gent. You do your non COM's duty.
You have a good suit of clothes. In the evening,
you're a free man and go off to the pub.
Hya is extraordinarily said on his He's in love with it.
And when your twelve years are up, you get your

(06:05):
pension and become a village bobby, and you can walk
about the whole day. He's already sweating on it. And
just you think how you be treated. Hear a dram
there a pint. Everybody wants to be well in with
a bobby. You'll never be a non calm, though, Haya interrupts.
Kat Hyle looks at him sadly and is silent. His

(06:30):
thoughts still linger over the clear evenings in autumn, the
sundays and the heather, the village bells, the afternoons and
evenings with the servant girls, the fried bacon and Barley,
the care free evening hours in the ale house. He
can't part with all these dreams, so abruptly he merely growls,
what silly questions you do? Ask? He pulls his shirt

(06:53):
over his head and buttons up his tunic. What would
you do? John asks, crop, tons of only one thing,
see to it that Himmelstas doesn't get past me. Apparently
he would like most to have him in a cage
and sail into him with a club every morning to crop.
He says warmly. If I were in your place, might

(07:16):
see to it that I became a lieutenant. Then you
could grind him to the water in his backside boils
and you det ring, asked Muller, like an inquisitor. He's
a born schoolmaster. With all his questions, Dating is sparing
with his words, but on this subject he speaks. He

(07:36):
looks at the sky and says only the one sentence,
I would go straight on with the harvesting. Then he
gets up and walks off. He is worried. His wife
has to look after the farm. They've already taken away
two of his horses. Every day he reads the papers
that come to see whether it's raining in his little

(07:58):
corner of Oldenburg. They haven't brought the hay in yet.
At this moment, Himilstos appears. He comes straight up to
our group. Chadden's face turns red. He stretches his length
on the grass and shuts his eyes in embarrassment. Himilstaus
is a little hesitant. His gait becomes slower. Then he

(08:20):
marches up to us. No one makes any motion to
stand up. Krop looks up at him with interest. He
continues to stand in front of us and wait. As
no one says anything, he launches a well. A couple
of seconds go by. Apparently Himmelstos doesn't quite know what
to do. He would like most to set us all

(08:42):
on the run again, but he seems to have learned
already that the front line isn't a parade ground. He
tries it on, though, and by addressing himself to one
instead of to all of us, hopes to get some response.
Krop is nearest, so he favors him. Well, well you
here too, But Albert's no friend of his, A bit

(09:05):
longer than you, I fancy, he retorts. The red mustache twitches.
You don't recognize me any more? What Tidden now opens
his eyes? I do, though, Himiostos turns to him. Chauden,
isn't it Tiauden lifts his head and do you know

(09:27):
what you are? Himiostas is disconcerted. Since when have we
become so familiar? I don't remember that we ever slept
in the gutter together. He has no idea what to
make of the situation. He didn't expect this open hostility,
but he is on his guard. Someone has already din

(09:49):
some rod into him about getting shot in the back.
The question about the gutter makes Chadden so mad that
he becomes almost witty. No, you slept there by yourself?
Himmeilstace begins to boil, but Jaden gets in ahead of him.
He must bring off his insult. Wouldn't you like to

(10:09):
know what you are? A dirty hound? That's what you are.
I've been wanting to tell you that for a long time.
The satisfaction of months shines in his dull pig's eyes
as he spits out dirty hound Himmeostas let's fly too. Now,
what's that you muckrake? You dirty pete steether. Stand up there,

(10:33):
bring your heels together. When your superior officer speaks to you,
Chadden winks solemnly. You take a run and jump at yourself. Himmelstace.
Himmelstas is a raging book of army regulations. The Kaiser
couldn't be more insulted, Todden. I command you, as your
superior officer, stand up? Anything else you would like, asked Chauden,

(10:59):
Will you obey my order or not? Chadden replies, without
knowing it, in the well known classical phrase. At the
same time he ventilates his backside. I'll have you court martialed,
storms Himmelstas. We watch him disappear in the direction of
the orderly room. Hya and Tiodden burst into a regular

(11:20):
pete digger's bellow. Hya laughs so much that he dislocates
his jaw and suddenly stands there helpless with his mouth
wide open. Albert has to put it back again by
giving it a blow with his fist. Kat is troubled.
If he reports you, it'll be pretty serious, do you

(11:40):
think he will? Asked Tiatten? Sure to I say, the
least you'll get will be five days close arrest, says
kat That doesn't worry Tiadden. Five days clink are five
days rest. And if they send you to the fortress,
urges the thoroughgoing Muller. Well, for the time being, the

(12:03):
war will be over. So far as I am concerned.
Tiadn is a cheerful soul. There aren't any worries for him.
He goes off with Hia and Lear so that they
won't find him. In the first flush of the excitement.
Muller hasn't finished yet. He tackles Krop again. Albert, if
you were really at home now, what would you do?

(12:26):
Krop is contented now and more accommodating How many of
us were there in the class? Exactly? We count up
out of twenty seven are dead, four wounded, one in
a madhouse. That makes twelve privates. Three of them are lieutenants,
says Muller. Do you think they would still let Katrick

(12:49):
sit on them? We guess not. We wouldn't let ourselves
be sad on for that matter, What do you mean
by the threefold theme in William tell says Krop reminiscently
and roars with laughter. What was the purpose of the
poetic League of Gudegen, asked Muller, suddenly and earnestly. How

(13:11):
many children had Charles the bald, I interrupted gently, You'll
never make anything of your life. Bomber croaks Muller, when
was the Battle of Zana? Krop wants to know you
like the studious mind crop, sit down three minus I wink?
What offices did like Kirgis consider the most important for

(13:34):
the state, asked Muller, pretending to take off his pasney.
Does it go we Germans fear God and none else
in the whole world? Or we the Germans fear God?
And I submit? How many inhabitants? Has Melbourne? Asked Muller.
How do you expect to succeed in life if you

(13:56):
don't know that? I asked Albert hotly, which she caps with,
what is meant by cohesion? We remember mighty little of
all that rubbish. Anyway, It has never been the slightest
use to us at school. Nobody ever taught us how
to light a cigarette in a storm of rain, nor

(14:17):
how a fire could be made with wet wood, nor
that it is best to stick a bayonet in the
belly because there it doesn't get jabbed as it does
in the ribs. Mulra says, thoughtfully, what's the use We'll
have to go back and sit in the forms again.
I consider that out of the question. We might take

(14:38):
a special exam that needs preparation. And if you do
get through, what then a student's life isn't any better.
If you have no money, you have to work like
the devil. It's a bit better, but it's rot all
the same. Everything they teach you crop supports me. Man

(15:00):
take all that stuff seriously. When he's once been out here, still,
you must have an occupation of some sort, insists Muller,
as though he were Kantric himself. Albert cleans his nails
with a knife. We are surprised at this delicacy, but
it is merely pensiveness. He puts the knife away and continues,

(15:23):
that's just it. Kat and Dettering and Haye will go
back to their jobs because they had them already. Himills
does too. But we never had any. How will we
ever get used to one after this? Here? He makes
a gesture toward the front, Well, want a private income,
and then we'll be able to live by ourselves in

(15:44):
a wood. I say, but at once feel ashamed of
this absurd idea. But what will really happen when we
go back, wonders Muller, and even he is troubled. Krupp
gives a shrug. I don't know. Let's get back first,
then we'll find out. We are all utterly at a loss.

(16:07):
What could we do? I ask? I don't want to
do anything, replies Crop wearily. You'll be dead one day,
so what does it matter. I don't think we'll ever
go back. When I think about it, Albert, I say,
after a while, rolling over on my back. When I
hear the word peace time, it goes to my head.

(16:29):
And if it really came, I think I would do
some unimaginable thing, something you know that it's worth having
lain here in the mok for. But I can't even
imagine anything. All I do know is that this business
about professions and studies and salaries and so on, it
makes me sick. It is and always was disgusting. I

(16:53):
don't see anything. I don't see anything at all, Albert.
All at once, everything seems to me confused and hopeless.
Crop feels it too. It will go pretty hard with
us all, but nobody at home seems to worry much
about it. Two years of shells and bombs. A man

(17:13):
won't peel that off as easy as a sock. We
agree that it's the same for everyone, not only for
us here, but everywhere, for everyone who is of our age.
To some more and to others less, it is the
common fate of our generation. Albert expresses it. The war
has ruined us for everything. He is right. We are

(17:38):
not youth any longer. We don't want to take the
world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves,
from our life. We were eighteen and had begun to
love life and the world, and we had to shoot
it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst
in our hearts. We are cut off from active vity,

(18:00):
from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no
longer we believe in the war. The orderly room shows
signs of life. Himmilstas seems to have stirred them up.
At the head of the column trots the fat sergeant major.
It is queer that almost all pay sergeant majors are fat.

(18:23):
Himmilstos follows him, thirsting for vengeance. His boots gleam in
the sun. We get up whire's Chadden. The sergeant puffs.
No one knows, of course. Himmistos glowers at us wrathfully.
You know very well you won't say that's the fact
of the matter. Out with it. Fatty looks round inquiringly,

(18:46):
but Yaden is not to be seen. He tries another way.
Joden will report at the orderay room in ten minutes.
Then he steams off, with Himmelstas in his wake. I
have a feeling that next time we go up wiring,
I'll be letting a bundle of wire fall on Himmelstas's leg.
Hence Krop we'll have quite a lot of jokes with him.

(19:09):
Laughs Muller. That is our sole ambition, to knock the
conceit out of a postman. I go into the hut
and put Chodden wise. He disappears. Then we change our
posse and lie down again to play cards. We know
how to do that, to play cards, to swear, and
to fight. Not much for twenty years, and yet too

(19:32):
much for twenty years. Half an hour later, Himmelstas is
back again. Nobody pays any attention to him. He asks
for Tiadden. We shrug our shoulders, then you better find him,
He persists, haven't you been to look for him? Krop
lies back in the grass and says, have you ever

(19:53):
been out here before? That's none of your business, retorts Himmelstas,
I expect an answer. Very good, says Krop, getting up.
See up there where those little white clouds are. Those
are anti aircraft. We were over there yesterday, five dead
and eight wounded. It was a lot of fun. Next time,

(20:17):
when you go up with us, before they die, the
fellows will come up to you, click their heels and ask, stiffly,
please may I go? Please? May I hup it. We've
been waiting here a long time for some one like you.
He sits down again, and Himmelstos disappears like a comet.
Three days c b Cat conjectures. Next time, I'll let fly,

(20:40):
I say to Albert. But that is the end. The
case comes up for trial in the evening. In the
orderly room, sits our Lieutenant Bertink and calls us in.
One after another. I have to appear as a witness
and explain the reason of Tian's in subordination. The story
of the bed wedding makes an impression. Himmelstace is recalled,

(21:02):
and I repeat my statement. Is that right? Bertink asks Himmelstaus.
He tries to evade the question, but in the end
has to confess, for Kropp tells the same story. Why
didn't someone report the matter, then asked Bertink, we are silent.
He must know himself how much use it is reporting

(21:24):
such things in the army. It isn't usual to make
complaints in the army. He understands it all right, though,
and lectures Himmelstace, making it plain to him that the
front isn't a parade ground. Then comes Cheon's turn, who
gets a long sermon and three days open arrest. He
gives Krop a wink and one day's open arrest. It

(21:46):
can't be helped, he says to him regretfully. He is
a decent fellow. Open arrest is quite pleasant. The clink
was once a foul house. There. We can visit the prisoners.
We know how to manage close arrest. Would have met
the cellar. They used to tie us to a tree,
but that is forbidden now. In many ways we are

(22:09):
treated quite like men. An hour after Tiaddon and Crop
are settled in behind their wire netting, we make our
way into them. Tiaden greets us crowing. Then we place
scat far into the night. Tidden wins, of course, the
lucky wretch. When we break up, Kat says to me,

(22:30):
what do you say to some roast goose? Not bad?
I agree. We climb up on a munition wagon. The
ride costes two cigarettes. Cat has marked the spot exactly.
The shed belongs to a regimental headquarters. I agree to
get the goose and receive my instructions. The outhouse is

(22:50):
behind the wall, and the door shuts. With just a peg.
Cat hoists me up. I rest my foot in his
hands and climb over the wall. Cat keeps the water
much below. I wait a few moments to accustom my
eyes to the darkness. Then I recognize the shed softly,
I steal across, lift the peg, pull it out, and

(23:11):
open the door. I distinguish two white patches two geese.
That's bad. If I grab one, the other will cackle, well,
both of them. If I'm quick, it can be done.
I make a jump. I catch hold of one, and
the next instant the second. Like a madman, I bash

(23:32):
their heads against the wall to stun them. But I
haven't quite enough weight. The beasts cackle and strike out
with their feet and wings. I fight desperately, but lord,
what a kick a goose has. They struggle and I
stagger about in the dark. These white patches are terrifying.
My arms have grown wings, and I'm almost afraid of

(23:53):
going up into the sky, as though I held a
couple of captive balloons in my fists. Then the row began.
One of them gets his breath and goes off like
an alarm clock. Before I can do anything, something comes
in from outside. I feel a blow, lie outstretched on
the floor and hear awful growls a dog. I steal

(24:15):
a glance to the side. He makes a snap at
my throat. I lie still and tuck my chin into
my collar. It's a bulldog. After an eternity, he withdraws
his head and sits down beside me. But if I
make the least movement, he growls. I consider the only
thing to do is to get hold of my small revolver,

(24:37):
and that too before anyone arrives. Inch by inch, I
move my hand toward it. I have the feeling that
it lasts an hour. The slightest movement and then an
awful growl. I lie still, then try again. When at
last I have the revolver, my hand starts to tremble.

(24:58):
I press it against the ground and then say over
to myself, jerk the revolver up fire before he has
a chance to grab, and then jump up slowly. I
take a deep breath and become calmer. Then I hold
my breath, whip up the revolver. It cracks. The dog
leaps howling to one side. I make for the door
of the shed and fall head over heels over one

(25:20):
of the damned geese at full speed. I seize it again,
and with a swing, toss it over the wall and
clamber up. No sooner am I on top than the
dog is up again, as lively as ever, and springs
at me quickly. I let myself drop. Ten paces away
stands Cat, with the goose under his arm. As soon

(25:41):
as he sees me, we run. At last we can
take a breather. The goose is dead. Cat saw to
that in a moment we intend to roast it without
telling anybody. I fetch a stove and wood from the hut,
and we crawl into a small deserted lean to which
we use for such purposes. The single window space is

(26:02):
heavily curtained. There is a sort of hearth, an iron
plate set on some bricks. We kindle a fire. Cat
plucks and cleans the goose. We put the feathers carefully
to one side. We intend to make two cushions out
of them. With the inscription sleep soft under shell fire.
The sound of the gun fire from the front penetrates

(26:24):
into our refuge. The glow of the fire lights up
our faces. Shadows dance on the wall. Sometimes a heavy
crash and the hut shivers. Aeroplane bombs. Once we hear
a stifled cry a hut must have been hit. Aeroplanes drone.
The tac tac of machine guns breaks out, but no

(26:45):
light that could be observed shows from us. We sit
opposite one another, Cat and I two soldiers in shabby coats,
cooking a goose in the middle of the night. We
don't talk much, but I believe we have a more
complete union with one another that even lovers have. We
are two men, two minute sparks of life. Outside is

(27:08):
the night and the circle of death. We sit on
the edge of it, crouching in danger. The grease drips
from our hands and our hearts. We are close to
one another, and the hour is like the room flecked
over with the lights and shadows of our feelings cast
by a quiet fire. What does he know of me?
Or I of him? Formerly we should not have had

(27:30):
a single thought in common. Now we sit with a
goose between us and feel in unison, and are so
intimate that we do not even speak. It takes a
long time to roast a goose, even when it is
young and fat, so we take turns. One bastes it
while the other lies down and sleeps. A grand smell

(27:51):
gradually fills the hut. The noises, without increase in volume,
pass into my dream, and yet linger in my memory.
In a half sleep, I watch cat dip and raise
the ladle. I love him his shoulders, his angular, stooping figure,
and at the same time I see behind him woods

(28:11):
and stars, and a clear voice utters words that bring
me peace to me. A soldier in big boots, belt
and knapsack, taking the road that lies before him under
the high heaven, quickly forgetting and seldom sorrowful, forever pressing
on under the wide night sky. A little soldier and

(28:31):
a clear voice, And if any one were to caress him,
he would hardly understand this soldier with the big boots
and shot heart, who marches because he is wearing big
boots and has forgotten all else. But marching beyond the
sky line is a country with flowers, lying so still
that he would like to weep. There are sights there

(28:53):
that he has not forgotten, because he never possessed them.
Perplexing yet lost to him, are not his twenty summers.
There is my face wet, and where am I? Cat
stands before me. His gigantic, stooping shadow falls upon me
like home. He speaks gently, he smiles, and goes back

(29:14):
to the fire. Then he says, it's done, Yes, Cat,
I stir myself in the middle of the room, shines
the brown goose. We take out our collapsible forks and
our pocket knives, and each cuts off a leg with it.
We have army bread dipped in gravy. We eat slowly

(29:35):
and with gusto. How does a taste cat good? And
yours good? Cat? We are brothers and press on one
another the choicest pieces. Afterwards, I smoke a cigarette and
Cat a cigar. There is still a lot left. How
would it be, Cat if we took a bit to crop,

(29:58):
and Tiaden sure, says he. We carve off a portion
and wrap it up carefully in newspaper. The rest we
thought of taking over to the hut. Cat laughs and
simply says Chadden. I agree, we'll have to take it all.
So we go off to the fowl house to wake them.

(30:18):
But first we pack away the feathers crop and Tett
take us firm magicians. Then they get busy with their teeth.
Chaden holds a wing in his mouth with both hands,
like a mouth organ, and gnaws. He drinks the gravy
from the pot and smacks his lips. May I never
forget you. We go to our hut again. There is

(30:41):
the lofty sky with the stars and the oncoming dawn,
and I pass on beneath it a soldier with big
boots and a full belly, a little soldier in the
early morning. But by my side, stooping an angular goes Cat,
my comrade. The outlines of the huts are upon us
in the dawn, like a dark, deep sleep. End of

(31:05):
chapter five