Henry's Songbook

Hello Hans
I was passing so I stopped to say hello
You don't know me
And there's no reason now why you should ever know
You died here
In some prison camp, conditions weren't too bad
Was it a wound, Hans
Or maybe the four walls sent you mad
You were twenty
That's what it says upon the stone
I'm trying to imagine
What it's like to die all alone
At twenty
Before you've had a chance to be half grown
I was passing so I stopped to say hello

Can you see the child, Hans
The little girl who laughs upon your grave
Not yours, Hans
Not the ones you went to war to save
See her father
He proudly picks her up and sits her down
On your tombstone
To take the photographs that he can show around
He was a young boy
At the very moment that you died
Perhaps you had a little child
To walk proudly by your side
Or a young wife
Who tried so very hard, but still she cried
Can you see the little girl laugh on your grave

So goodbye, Hans
I'll maybe come again some other time
Because somehow
That grave that's yours could easily be mine
You see, there's wars, Hans
Men are trained to fight each other still
It goes on, Hans
It always has, it seems it always will
So I must go now
The young men milling round and making so much noise
And as you remember
When they're together boys will always just be boys
Unlike you, Hans
They've never been a country's broken toys

So goodbye
I'll maybe come again some other time

[1989:] This is the earliest of the songs in this collection. Written for Hans Steggemann, who is buried in the German military cemetery on Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, England. (Notes Harvey Andrews, '25 Years on the Road')