(after Tony Harrison)
Around a table
the president, his cabinet
and some generals sit in a council of war
and these men
are traders of the bodies of boys
who have just left school
and they deal in corpses
when they send them into war
and as a return
get caskets with the dead,
battered, hardened, shattered
bomb happy citizens
and some receive dog tags
and have to write letters
to parents and wives
but do not experience the lost,
do not carry the cost of lost of income,
do not hear the crying
or see the aching
which death brings
to fathers, mothers,
brothers, sisters, wives, children
and friends
neither do they experience
gunshots, bursting grenades, falling bombs
piercing rockets
or having to crawl through sodden marches,
having to live on ration packs,
or local vegetation
as citizen force soldiers do
who have been called up
against their will
or see the humiliation, the poverty
or the effect of war
on the local population
but sit in their castles and palaces
living up the glory
of their positions,
living in luxury
as if they are gods
with the power
over life and death.
[Reference: "The Bonebard Ballads: The Ballad of Geldshark" by Tony Harrison.]
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Against their will! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.