By Panagiotis Konstantinidis Trifylios
August 20, 1922
On this day the sun hid itself in shame because it saw that it was found above slaves and not Greek men who knew how to win! He averted his gaze and his heart ached he was ashamed at the end of an army with so much glory as if he saw with his own eyes without believing it three generals shamelessly giving their swords to those whom earlier other comrades of his were chasing like hares on the same mountaintops Time of Surrender Five o’clock was the hour It might have been six When the French officer headed the three hundred Chetches who fought without having rifles with our own generals he came to an agreement That’s how they sold us out! Human herd! like the cattle that their master sells to another and their new master sends shepherds to collect them immediately so that none of them leave. So they gathered us up in public and began to count us without finding a way out! For many hours they counted us Both sitting and standing to find out how many they had caught But it is a question of whether they found it! We were expecting a knife from the wild Turks And we thought it was a miracle That they didn’t even touch us! Perhaps they owed it to this agreement and if we judge it fairly, that was not a little! But what they asked of us I couldn’t bear it our panties boots, our flasks shirts watches, willingly or unwillingly we gave them like slaves to whom we owed money since they didn’t slaughter us It was already an hour into the night When they stopped counting and they put us forward to the city to take us, like sheep are put forward to the slaughterhouse With our heads bowed, and our hearts black we, the unfortunates, walked like half-dead with thoughts in our heads with fear in our hearts We had death in mind on our way up and all the while we waited for the massacre to begin The hours that passed the length of the road the voices of our companions “chabuk chabuk giaouri” the pain in our feet, from our bare feet the wood that fell wildly on those who stayed behind, did not let our thoughts leave our minds The road was rough a moonless night and those who did not trade had to follow quickly from great fatigue the pain in their feet from hunger most of them from thirst others from terror in their hearts from their exhaustion they were lying on the ground The Turks dragged them from the line aside and there they abandoned them without any help a table for the savages Like butchers for the herd they buy and drive them in a hurry may the sun not take them whatever remains of their slaughter they leave behind without caring about them if the wolves will eat them! That’s how they lined up the unfortunate soldiers That’s why we all ran with our souls in our mouths and hurried our steps to be in our turn And we, the unfortunate ones, reached a fountain on the road A fountain with gurgling water and medicine for thirst How much we begged to leave us a little to cool our lips to heal our hearts They mercilessly began to beat us with clubs but from our thirst we lay down in the mud , to cool our lips to cool our hearts But from there they lifted us and mercilessly took us It would be better to kill us than what they did Our hearts ached and we all understood what we waited where they were taking us, We have now arrived at Usak a great Turkish city and there the Turks were waiting for us with flowers! Flowers made of leather and large clubs of sickles and hammers stones, dung, buds and something worse their own saliva that they spat on us into the dead bodies Our hearts all ached at our humiliation Death a thousand times rather than contempt We shouted curses at our officers who stood so cowardly and handed us over They tore off their galloons so that they wouldn’t be seen for what they were No one committed suicide to wash away the shame And there were three generals unspeakable others who accepted without shame the neck to bend Only one was found brave young man He took out his pistol “Forward, boys” he shouts “Three hundred naked who stand before us and thousands of us! It would be a shame to surrender to them If we all throw ourselves at them not one of us will be left behind” No one followed Only the Ulami who at the school of Afion had them as his students I don’t know what happened to the name of Vlachos Vlachos a proper Greek rank of major Only he was found to honor the body in front of so many cowards who were caught “wet” I don’t blame the Phadars they always follow If they saw the leaders following the Vlachos no one would stay behind even if they were tired But these were cowardly dishonorable people! Women seemed vile who in life chose its dishonest path like dishonest like prostitutes and not the honest work to live their lives And also because they knew that their miserable skin nothing would happen because it had the gallons of its big protector
And they were not mistaken at all, Few were lost While of our soldiers thousands did not return That night great silence reigned and nature wept at our fall It was saddened by the fall of an army that even the branches felt proud at its first passage, as if now they saw him with his head down speakinglessly walking heavily swayed They saw him speechlessly with withered limbs as the world stands at the funeral procession A place that was freed enslaved for centuries may slavery return to it along with the knife The Turks rejoiced in their victory until midnight with songs they sang songs of joy, songs of our slavery, songs that spoke of our tradition, they cheered Kemal for his feat and taunted us for our tradition. They felt proud of their own victory, victory that had passed through Thermopylae. And the slaves came in endless lines until morning. They crowded us like sheep, one against the other. As if we were spies, we fell asleep right away, and before we knew it, they had locked us up inside. As if it had dawned, we saw that we were locked up. They locked us up in the camp, where we were Turks, as if we were masters, and they were prisoners.
And they were a hundred and we were five thousand
How can we fit in there?
On the second day, they expanded this space what they kept bringing
I was lucky with three others to sleep in a tent that we found
ready and with a roof over it
It was one of the tents where the Turks were staying
But as the sun rose and began to burn the three of us became twenty and the tent disappeared
The August sun became our enemy He burned us all day without pitying us
You dare say he did it on purpose because he was offended that we did not honor him by throwing away our rifles and we gave our victory to the Turkish moon
But was it our fault? Others betrayed us We, helpless little ones and suffering for five days and nights we walked mountains supposedly because the Generals had lost their way! Chetniks beat us here and Chetniks further and like cowards and incompetents
they give us to the Turks and the hell of thirst began to torment us!
And many voices were heard voices that were dead! “Water, water, water!
A little water, I’m dying” But who would give the water? and who would help him? The water was two steps away, and the tap was running! But who could pass the wire door? The machine guns around us for whom were they set up? And so many Turks there in front with clubs in their hands for whom were they waiting And as the minutes passed and as the time passed and the sun strengthened the flame in our bodies our insatiable thirst melted our insides It dried our saliva our mouths became parched it made our voices hoarse it blurred our eyes Our eyes sank deep into their sockets our skin turned yellow it took on the color of death Our eyes saw ghosts before them and everyone in their last moments called for their mother But neither mother came to bring them water nor did the Turks’ hearts break with pain On the contrary, the fanatics they took revenge And the burning oil with divine “love”! our tender bodies laid them on the plain He had his eyes closed his ears plugged and he saw nothing and heard nothing of the Christians we cry And with bitter complaint they spoke to God: “My God, why don’t you hear and pretend you don’t see? Bring out a cloud and You and throw a little rain so that the deserts can cool down in this scorching sun! Don’t you pity us? Have you become a Turk? What are we to blame for?” But He did not answer but He did not speak Only the Death was wondering the Death is wondering who to take quickly and whom to punish The sick, the weak the weary gave up their spirits from the first day On the second day, most of them went to the first Their thirst was stirring in company with the Death The unfortunate young men were lying on their backs and they were looking at the ground with outstretched arms and their bodies yellow the mouth dry full of dirty flies and with their eyes open and those who were not buried at that very hour when death cursed them they smelled badly so badly they smelled so badly that it suffocated the strong stench Many had gone crazy from great thirst and were drinking the urine of those who were urinating and others decided to break the door to take death after an hour and all together shouting we peed And in their insane deadly rush they gave the Turks the joy that they were so seeking They grabbed their clubs and beat them with rage they broke their heads they spilled their minds they broke their arms their backs and their ribs and others fell dead and others wounded who if they stood upright either because they wanted to or because they couldn’t the Turks with their clubs they finished And when no one was left standing the Turks, laughing, dragged them by the feet and threw them with force one at another without distinguishing the dead and the wounded
Thus many of the living were found covered by the dead and all of them drenched in blood. No matter how much they groaned and screamed from so much pain, no one paid attention to them, and the unfortunates would die under such a weight, drowned in blood and suffocation. However, those who were on top of the others were finished off as they stood up by the same clubs and the same Turks. Soon, the same Turks received orders to enter the camp, select prisoners, take them and leave. We weep for them later. We thought that they too would suffer the same fate, but soon they came, holding their stretchers and seeing the dead being carried we all glorified God and we got hope And this relieved us we would not lose the stench that brothers with the fire of the sun in our doom The thirst was unbearable Two or three of our people with some iron corner that they took out of the wire tried to open a well and they dug day and night and others helped them and because our place was on a mud as if they had reached half an orgy they brought out a mud Joy to us . We took it, put it in our mouths, and it cooled our tongues, which were parched. And when it was still half a meter deep, they found water, and the mud was softened. The one who had begun prepared a bucket, and after gathering water, as much as a glass, the hermos bent down to enjoy all his hard work. The others, reckless and incontinent, beat him, choked him, and began to quarrel. And soon the Turk, the master, arrived, began to beat them, chased them away, and ordered them to throw the dirt into the water with their hands and fill it with mud. well The one who opened it and is now drowned should leave him there, he is the grave “These are the Greeks” he turns and tells us “Giaouris, scoundrels without any knowledge” And he laughed sarcastically at our great humiliation Many of the Turks of the Guard from our own thirst were taking from us what their other colleagues had left for us as if they saw my mantle which we had for shade at midnight he asked to take it and in return he gave us water to fill us We gladly gave it but the miserable Turk took my mantle for a kilo of water a flask from the small very wrinkled Immediately and cautiously with a tin can we drank water drops and wet our lips and then covered it sitting on it We only drank at night only in the nearby and so we all endured until the fifth day The fifth day was for us a day of blessing when the water gate opened and we ran to drink Many from the much water died in hours and the Commander ordered to enter the fountain and only from two sips each of us to drink On this day the suffering of thirst ended to begin the slavery that had no end.
END
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Remarks
The poet was a 19-year-old law student at the time and his class had not been called. However, he volunteered and went to Asia Minor to liberate the ancient Greek lands.Finally the poet returned after two years of captivity, with his feet cut off at the lower ends of the fingers and with severe tuberculosis on the verge of death. The torture at the hands of the Turkish barbarians was unspeakable. He records it in other poems of his. The EU embraces them in common defense. Against whom? The Americans also want them as permanent allies. Against Turkey’s neighbors, perhaps?
