For remembrance day:
A Warrior’s Lament by Nnamdi Olebara
Now on the battlefield
I know what faces me.
It is death; my death.
I do not hate those I fight;
It is their deeds I hate.
Those I am fighting for do not love me;
My death shall not grieve them,
Nor shall it bring them joy.
…
Translated from the Igbo by Chinweizu
Read the whole poem in ‘101 Poems Against War’ (Faber & Faber 2003)
Last year’s peace poem: Five Minutes After the Air Raid by Miroslav Holub
(from the same anthology)
Eddie Playfair 