Customer Reviews

Prussian Nights: A Poem

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's incredible to realise that Aleksandr Isayevich kept this entire poem memorised in his head for many years before it was safe to write it down, esp. considering it has about twelve thousand lines and is over fifty pages long. It takes place during the early winter of 1945, in East Prussia, when WWII was ending, and describes what was going on during this time, like the fighting between the Russians and the Germans, the magnificent breakthrough into German territory from the East, and the ransacking of abandoned German houses by the victorious Russian army. Like all of the men in his unit, Aleksandr Isayevich is also a young soldier living for today, feeling he can do whatever he pleases because his side is winning and can do whatever he wants to the much-weakened enemies standing in his way, including stealing belongings from the houses which were abandoned by their owners, who were in a big hurry to flee westward with the Nazis once it became clear they were losing the war and the Russians were on their way.

The end is very powerful and tender; the young narrator has entered yet another house, only this time it isn't abandoned. Like most young soldiers in wartime, he wants to sleep with the woman he finds there alone, but unlike some other soldiers, he doesn't rape her or demand her services, rather letting her decide when she's ready (not like she has much choice anyway!). And after the woman has given her "consent," partly because she fears for her life if she refuses, the narrator already feels horrible about what he's done, while the woman is begging him not to kill her. The final three lines, of what is going through his mind and how he feels about what he's done to this woman, are very poignant and haunting.