Arendt, Brecht, and Bowie

Last week Roger Berkowitz inaugurated the reading of The Human Condition in the Virtual Reading Group (amidst a record 185 attendees) with a short lecture about Arendt’s addition of an epigraph by Bertolt Brecht to the Prologue of the German edition of the Vita Activa. The epigraph consists of the first and last paragraphs of Brecht’s opening hymn to his play Baal. You can see a recording of the whole Virtual Reading Group discussion of Arendt’s Prologue here. 

Whilst his mother’s womb contained the growing Baal
Even then the sky was waiting quiet and pale
Naked, young, immensely marvellous
Like Baal loved it, when he came to us

Once the Earth’s dark womb engulfed the rotting Baal
Even then the sky was up there, quiet and pale
Naked, young, immensely marvellous
Like Baal loved it when he lived with us

Brecht’s hymn was translated and performed by David Bowie in a version you can listen to here. 

You can also watch a short introduction video about the Virtual Reading group produced by Bard Student and Hannah Arendt Center student fellow Jonathan Fine.