When Wilt Thou Teach the People — ?

When wilt thou teach the people
God of justice, to save themselves — ?
They have been saved so often
and sold.

O — God of justice, send no more saviours
of the people!

When a saviour has saved a people
they find he has sold them to his father.
They say: We are saved but we are starving.
He says: The sooner will you eat imaginary cake in the
   mansions of my father.
They say: Can’t we have a loaf of common bread?
He says: No, you must go to heaven, and eat the most
   marvellous cake. —

Or Napoleon says: Since I have saved you from the ci-devants,
you are my property, be prepared to die for me, and to work for
   me. —

Or later republicans say: You are saved,
therefore you are savings, our capital
with which we shall do big business. —

Or Lenin says: You are saved, but you are saved wholesale.
You are no longer men, that is bourgeois;
you are items in the soviet state,
and each item will get its ration,
but it is the soviet state alone which counts
the items are of small importance,
the state having saved them all. —

And so it goes on, with the saving of the people.
God of justice, when wilt thou teach them to save themselves?