jueves, 16 de marzo de 2017

Una carta a las trincheras

En Love Letters of the Great War (2014), Mandy Kirkby recoge esta carta, escrita por una mujer a su marido, que está en el frente. Fue enviada desde Gleiwitz, en Silesia, en abril de 1917:
Dear Husband!
This is the last letter I am writing to you, because on the 24th I am going to marry another man. Then I don’t have to work any longer. I have already been working for three years as long as you are away from home. All the other men come home for leave, only you POWs never come. Nobody knows how long it will take until you come home. That’s why I am going to have a new husband. I will give the children to the orphanage. I don’t give a rat’s ass about a life like that! There is no way to survive with these few Pfennig benefits. At work they have a big mouth about the women. Now I don’t need to go to work, now the other man is going to work for me. All wives whose husbands are POWs will do the same thing and they will all get rid of the children. Three years at work are too much for the women and 20 Mark for benefit and 10 Mark child benefit are not enough. One cannot live on that. Everything is so expensive now. One pound of bacon costs 8 Mark, a shirt, 9 Mark.
Your wife
“We don’t know anything more about this unfortunate couple, but the strain of separation has brought the wife to breaking point,” escribe Kirkby. “Whether she carried out her threat, we’ll never know.”

5 comentarios:

  1. Esta mujer sabía cómo levantar la moral de la tropa... enemiga.

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  2. Su marido ni siquiera está ya en el frente, es un POW (prisoner of war); puede que le queden muchos años para volver si es que lo consigue.
    La mujer habla de marcos alemanes y Silesia entonces era parte de Alemania; como los alemanes perdieron, pueden haber sido unos cuantos años más después del fin de la guerra.

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  3. Y el libro se llama 'Love Letters...'.

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  4. Parece una situación sacada de la guerra del Peloponeso... Nosotros que creemos que estas cosas ya no nos pasan...

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  5. Mira que no tener la delicadeza de escribe "Dear wifeless"...

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