When the captain called me by name
That first morning outside Yongdongpo
I stepped smartly forward to exclaim
With gung-ho gusto - 'Sir! Bravo! '
'Gory! Gory! What a hell of a way to die! '
Swede and I stepped forward that day
To recon the trail that snaked uphill
Into a Hell lifted from lines out of Dante!
We were bloody grist for the infernal mill!
'Gory! Gory! What a hell of a way to die! '
Neither wooden marker nor granite stone
Mark the place where we fell outside Yongdongpo!
Captain and our company left the zone
With gung-ho gusto! No regrets! Bravo!
'Gory! Gory! What a hell of a way to die! '
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Bravo! This poem is sort of Kipling-ish. The exclamations add such feeling.