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 what would happen. In this poem Øverland mentions Hitler by name, and says: [2]

And then they’ll leave home for a rainfall of steel,
‘Till last they hang ragged on barbed wire will,
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!" (in Norwegian). Samtiden 47: 318–320. 
  2. ^ Storstrand, Lars-Toralf (2005-06-30). "Les Lars-Toralfs engelske oversettelse" (in Norwegian). Dagbladet. http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2005/06/30/436130.html. Retrieved 2009-03-22.