Читать книгу All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque - Страница 18

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kantorek would say that we stood on the thresh-old of life. and so it would seem. we had as yet taken no root. the war swept us away. for the others, the older men, it is but an interruption. they are able to think beyond it. we, however, have been gripped by it and do not know what the end may be. we know only that in some strange and melancholy way we have become a waste- land. all the same, we are not often sad.

though mu ̈ller would be delighted to have kemmerich’s boots, he is really quite as sympathetic as another who might not bear to think of such a thing forgrief. he merely sees things clearly.

were kemmerich able to make any use of the boots, mu ̈ller would rather go bare-foot over barbed wire thanscheme to get hold of them.

once it was different. when we went to the district commandant to enlist, we were a class of twenty young men, many of whom proudly shaved for the first time before going to the barracks. we had no definite plans for the future.

we have lost all other consider-ations, because they are artificial. only the facts are real and important to us. and good boots are scarce.

we learned that a bright button is weightier than four volumes of schopenhauer.