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I was my hands of it all, Translation of Pierre Emmanuel’s Je m’en lave les mains by T. Wignesan And what could we have done in his place Who in this century would dare to judge him he belongs to you and you are me-myself A tiny cogwheel An average individual Someone responsible neither for evil nor for good Who merely transmits For others to execute I am not to blame Even if these things are not the makings of anyone in particular they just happen When such things happen I’m never around It always takes place elsewhere It’s not my fault I’m just a soldier They’ll tell me Yes you’re not to blame A command is a command I am a soldier I obey orders I‘m given I merely pass them down the ranks It’s not my duty to be concerned I wash my hands of it all All this then just drains through my fingers There are other hands to own up to all this Replete with a hangman who’s one of them More cowardly than Ponce-Pilate Who at least kept saying I wield power Who did everything thought he could really do anything Excepting the impossible and hence did nothing To save him And Jesus said You wouldn’t have had this authority if it weren’t handed down from up on high Everyone of us is a grain out of the stock Each is stymied by all One’s implacable spineless There’s nothing I can do, I’m helpless This’s the unending wail rising from humanity He who alone agrees to bear the burden Of all the others which none can bear alone Is capable of the impossible (from Piere Emmanuel’s “Les Jours de la Passion”, July 2011) © T. Wignesan – Paris, October 10, 2014
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