“Comrade, I did not want to kill you.
If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too.
But you were only an idea to me before,
an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response.
It was that abstraction I stabbed.
But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me.
I thought of your hand grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle;
now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship.
Forgive me comrade.
We always see it too late.
Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us,
that your mothers are just as anxious as ours,
and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony
– forgive me comrade; how could you be my enemy?”
Erich Maria Remarque
All Quiet on the Western Front
On Sunday, I took a moment to reflect on Armistice Day, drawing on the above extract from Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Today, I am taking a few moments to translate the passage above for the workplace:
“Colleague, I did not want to speak ill of you at the water cooler.
If you acted in the same way again, I would not do it, if only I could be sure you, too, would not speak ill of me.
But you were only an idea to me before,
an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response.
It was that abstraction I spoke of.
But now, for the first time, I see that you are human like me.
I thought of your department and the way you never deliver on time,
I thought of the risk to my own department and our reputation across the company,
I thought of the way you always seem to get promoted ahead of me even so;
Now I see that, like me, you have a mortgage to pay, a family to feed –
You are doing your best.
Forgive me colleague.
We always see it too late.
Why do they never tell us that you – in Accounts, HR, IT, Sales – are poor devils like us,
That you are as anxious as we are,
and that we have the same fear for our jobs and the same doubts buried beneath our fears
– forgive me colleague; how could you be my enemy?”