(Poetic / Literary Translation)
Prologue
A sworn friend of the Greek—yet at his side he turns into an enemy.
In his company he grows foolish, for division feeds him without end.
Time does not change the Greek; then as now,
the foreign hand drives him toward division and cries aloud.
He embraces the enemy as a friend,
and the enemy comes to help—for a price:
to tear hearts from the faithless, without mercy, without restraint.
The Civil War
Thus we were shattered by civil war.
Brother butchered brother for the sake of ideas,
without pity, without mercy, not even a final blessing.
Some called the Athenians democrats;
others named the Spartans oligarchs.
Meanwhile the enemies lay in wait for the golden moment
to fasten the yoke of slavery upon us—
just as today the West provokes strife
while the Yellow Dragon storms forward.
The system of rule was only the pretext—
democracy or oligarchy.
The true aim of outsiders was one alone:
to turn us into subjects.
Peace and Rupture
In times of peace, people grow calm
and tend to their well-being.
But when needs swell and burdens rise,
complaint becomes conflict,
and like a raging torrent, it sweeps all away.
Civil war is born within,
yet it carries mutual slaughter:
brother kills brother, child kills father,
and Strife banishes reason.
No one knows who is friend or foe,
and vengeance reigns supreme.
Fear
When you meet another,
you speak of winds and waters.
Be careful not to reveal yourself,
even if you are but a lamb.
Do not say whether you stand with the reds
or with the blues.
The tongue ties itself.
According to whom you face,
you learn either to keep silent
or to speak in riddles,
so that no one truly understands you.
The Corruption of Values
Civil war provokes the mind,
sets the soul ablaze,
and inflates the passions.
Informing wounds—
and often kills.
Reckless audacity was renamed courage,
blind obedience became virtue;
prudence was called cowardice,
self-restraint unmanliness.
Patriotism was branded nationalism,
and the democratic man a communist—
both in civil war and in occupation.
Words lost their meaning:
quarrel became merit,
reflection an evasion.
The frenzied were celebrated,
the rational suspected,
and the thug appeared powerful.
The Parties
With dogmas they feed the sheep,
with ideologies they water them,
until they forget the homeland
for an unseen promise.
To the rams they offer offices,
money, rank, and glory.
To the rest—the pen and silence.
The party above all.
Legalized gangs shout endlessly on the screens,
noise without substance.
They stone the homeland
and excellence alike.
Their unity is no virtue—
it is shared complicity.
Even justice they hold in their grasp.
Legalized gangs:
they seize through laws,
they steal through procedures.
They fear opposition,
though it serves society.
Party Rule
They honor their oaths only when it suits them,
and trample them once they grow strong.
Through deceit they betray the homeland,
and if needed, they burn it to save themselves.
They borrow and never repay,
they control the treasury.
Honest men are rare;
crafty and agreeable ones abound.
If they are called clever and we fools,
then replace them.
We want patriots as leaders—
not the leader’s ornamental plants.
Historical Nightmare
Savage were the morals of civil war.
The sun hid itself in shame.
Brother slew brother, son slew father,
and rage gave birth to the monster of division.
The “party of the people” drank our blood—
and this is no lie.
The civil war was foreign-driven:
two governments,
and the people lost in between.
We emerged victorious from war,
yet instead of justice and reparations,
we turned our weapons upon one another.
Epilogue
Civil war does not end with weapons.
It continues through parties,
through distorted words,
buried memories,
and betrayed homelands.
Whoever forgets
is condemned to live it again.