Saturday, November 11, 2006

Remembrance Day 2006




















"So when I’m killed, don’t mourn for me,

Shot, poor lad, so bold and young,

Killed and gone—don’t mourn for me.

On your lips my life is hung:

O friends and lovers, you can save

Your playfellow from the grave."


ROBERT GRAVES

Fairies and Fusiliers 1918

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There’s something about an unnamed grave marker that reminds me of the futility of war. It has to be one of the saddest statements a person can imagine. It’s a reminder of how souls become lost in times of war. It’s a terrible thing.

Anonymous said...

amen, simon, amen.

toobusyliving said...

Great post. I wrote a Remembrance Day post last night and then woke up and decided to go to the big ceremony in Toronto for the first time. It was moving beyond words. These men....well, you know. I'm sorry that I was too apathetic/"busy"/hungover etc. to have ever gone before.

These men came home from war and never even spoke about the unspeakable things they had seen and done. They were proud to have done a job that needed doing, and personally lived with the consequences. No PTSD groups, no nothing. It was a different generation. It reminds me of a line from The Illiad that has often got me through really bad times:

" I am a soldier, saith my heart,
and I have seen worse sights than this."

Homer, Illiad, Book XVI

toobusyliving said...

I just listened to the podcast suggested by Anon:

"For your tomorrow, we did our today."