Wild Geese (song)

Wildgänse rauschen durch die Nacht (Wild geese rush through the night) is a war poem by Walter Flex. It was published in 1917 in his poem book Im Felde zwischen Nacht und Tag (In the (battle) field between day and night). The poem was also part of his 1916 novel Der Wanderer zwischen beiden Welten (The wanderer between both worlds).

The lyrics got popular through an adaption in a song created by Robert Götz. Götz tune did exist as early as 1916 but the Wild Geese song[1] found a widespread recognition by usage in the Wandervogel movement / Bündische Jugend society during the late 1920s. The tragic lyrics pose an interesting contrast to the marching tune which found adoption in other societies as well. Apart from national Studentenverbindung fraternities it is a traditional song in the Austrian and German army.

The song is also popular in the French army in its French version "Les Oies Sauvages". The version of the French Foreign Legion has also overtaken the first stanza of the German lyrics as its fourth stanza. Furthermore the topic of wild geese rushing through the night has become a symbol of airborne troops though there is no widespread English translation so far.

Creation

The actual creation time of the lyrics are unknown. Soon after publishing the poem book he went very popular in the Reich. Walter Flex was ordered to Berlin to support the German General Staff publishing. After finishing the report "Der Krieg in Einzeldarstellungen" (the war in single depictions) for the general staff he asked to be moved back to the eastern front to fight for his home lands in Estonia. He died on October 17, 1917 from wounds taken in an unimportant battle near the "Peudehof" cottage, today Pöide Parish in Estonia. As for the creation of the poem only the narration in the novel 'the wanderer between both worlds' can be used...

„[…] Ich lag als Kriegsfreiwilliger wie hundert Nächte zuvor auf der granatenzerpflügten Waldblöße als Horchposten und sah mit windheißen Augen in das flackernde Helldunkel der Sturmnacht, durch die ruhelose Scheinwerfer über deutsche und französische Schützengräben wanderten. Der Braus des Nachtsturms schwoll anbrandend über mich hin. Fremde Stimmen füllten die zuckende Luft. Über Helmspitze und Gewehrlauf hin sang und pfiff es schneidend, schrill und klagend, und hoch über den feindlichen Heerhaufen, die sich lauernd im Dunkel gegenüberlagen, zogen mit messerscharfem Schrei wandernde Graugänse nach Norden. […] Die Postenkette unseres schlesischen Regiments zog sich vom Bois des Chevaliers hinüber zum Bois de Vérines, und das wandernde Heer der wilden Gänse strich gespensterhaft über uns alle dahin. Ohne im Dunkel die ineinanderlaufenden Zeilen zu sehen, schrieb ich auf einen Fetzen Papier ein paar Verse: […]“[2]
"[…] I was a volunteer as a hundred nights earlier now lying on the forest clearing plowed by grenades and serving as listening post to stare into the flickering light of the stormy night, walked by the restless spotlights on German and French trenches. The roar of the oncoming night storm swelled up on me. Strange voices filled the quivering air. About helmet tip and barrel it sang and whistled, cutting, shrill and plaintive, and high over the hostile armies, which lurked opposite to each in the darkness went with razor-sharp cry a migratory grey geese flight northbound. […] The cordon of our Silesian Regiment stretched from Bois des Chevaliers to the Bois de Verin, and the army of migratory wild geese ranged ghostly on us all away. Without seeing my intertwined lines in the darkness I wrote on a scrap of paper a few verses: […]"

Although the book is heavily influenced by an autobiographic side it is nevertheless fictitious for the most part.

The poem
Walter Flex[3] (direct translation) (poetic translation)
  1. Wildgänse rauschen durch die Nacht
    Mit schrillem Schrei nach Norden –
    Unstäte Fahrt! Habt acht, habt acht!
    Die Welt ist voller Morden.
  2. Fahrt durch die nachtdurchwogte Welt,
    Graureisige Geschwader!
    Fahlhelle zuckt, und Schlachtruf gellt,
    Weit wallt und wogt der Hader.
  3. Rausch' zu, fahr' zu, du graues Heer!
    Rauscht zu, fahrt zu nach Norden!
    Fahrt ihr nach Süden übers Meer –
    Was ist aus uns geworden!
  4. Wir sind wie ihr ein graues Heer
    Und fahr'n in Kaisers Namen,
    Und fahr'n wir ohne Wiederkehr,
    Rauscht uns im Herbst ein Amen!
  1. Wild geese are rushing through the night
    With shrilling cry northbound –
    Unsteady way! Attention, be wary!
    The world is full of murder.
  2. Sail through the world surged through by the night,
    Gray traveling [yeoman] squadrons!
    Wan light quivers, and battle cry yells,
    Far surges and heaves the quarrel.
  3. Rush on, sail on, you gray-colored host!
    Rush on, sail on to the north!
    When you sail southwards over the sea –
    What will have become of us!
  4. We are like you a gray-colored host
    And sail in the name of the emperor,
    And if we sail without return,
    Rush an amen for us in autumn!
  1. Wild geese are rushing through the night
    With shrilling cry northbound their heading –
    Attention, take care! Unsteady flight!
    The world is full of murdering.
  2. Sail through the world engulfed by night,
    Gray yeomen-soldier squadron!
    Battle cry yelling, wan quivering light,
    Far heaves the quarrels cauldron.
  3. Gray-colored host, rush on, sail – flee!
    Rush on, sail on to the north!
    When you sail south across the sea –
    What will our fate have brought forth!
  4. We are like you a host in gray
    We sail on the emperors call,
    If sans return we sail away,
    Rush an amen for us in fall!

References
  1. "Sound file". Ingeb.org. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
  2. Flex, Walter. Der Wanderer zwischen beiden Welten Ein Kriegserlebnis [The Wanderer between the Two Worlds: An Experience of War] (in German) (368. bis 380. Tausend (print run of copies 368,000 to 380,000) ed.). München: C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. pp. 1–2.
  3. Flex, Walter. Der Wanderer zwischen beiden Welten Ein Kriegserlebnis [The Wanderer between the Two Worlds: An Experience of War] (in German) (368. bis 380. Tausend (print run of copies 368,000 to 380,000) ed.). München: C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. p. 2.
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