Dare not to sleep

"Dare not to sleep" (Norwegian: "Du må ikke sove!") is a poem written by Arnulf Øverland. The poem was first published in the magazine Samtiden in 1936,^[1] and included in the poetry collection Den Røde Front from 1937.

It is about the Nazism and Fascism's onward march in Europe – a warning against indifference, human contempt and a warning against what would happen. In this poem Øverland mentions Hitler by name, and says: ^[2]

(...)

You oughn't abide, sitting calm in your home
Saying: "Dismal it is, poor they are, and alone."
You cannot permit it! You dare not, at all.
Accepting that outrage on all else may fall!
I cry with the final gasps of my breath:
"You dare not repose, nor stand and forget."

"Pardon them not– they know what they do!
They breathe on hate-glows, and evil pursue,
They fancy to slay, they revel with cries,
Their desire is to gloat, when our world is at fire!
In blood they are yearning to drown one and all!
Don't you believe it? You've heard the call!"

(...)

And then they'll leave home for a rainfall of steel,
'Till last they hang ragged on a barbed-wire wheel,
Decaying for Hitler's Aryan call,
That is what a man's for– after all.

Footnotes

1. Øverland, Arnulf (1936). Jac. S. Worm-Müller (ed.). "Du må ikke sove!". Samtiden (in Norwegian). 47: 318–320.
2. Storstrand, Lars-Toralf (2005-06-30). "Les Lars-Toralfs engelske oversettelse" (in Norwegian and English). Dagbladet. Retrieved 2009-03-22. (The poem translated into English)