New sufferings  

 

‘But he´s a decent chap,’said Svejk. ‘He´s only here because he didn´t want to joint up. He´s against the war, belongs to some kind of sect and he´s been gaoled because he didn´t want to kill people. He keeps God´s commandment, but they´re going to make God´s commandment hot for him.Before the war there was a fellow called Nemrava living in Moravia who didn´t even want to take a rifle on his shoulder, and when he was called up he said that it was against his principles to carry a rifle. Because of that he was gaoled until he was blue in the fase and then brought up again to take the oath. But he said he wouldn´t do it as it was against his principles and he held out so long that he got away with it.’

 

One of the paragraphs that most clearly expresses Jaroslav Hasek's opinion on the war. For the Czech author, the war is not merely cruel, unjust and obscene but ludicrous.

And it will continue…

From my Borstal

LDR

 

The Good Soldier Svejk AND HIS FORTUNES IN THE WORLD WAR.- Jaroslav Hasek.- Penguin Books, London, 1973 (Translation from the Czech by Cecil Parrot with the original illustrations by Josef Lada)