Shema
By Primo Levi
Translated by Ruth Feldman And Brian Swann
You who live secure
In your warm houses
Who return at evening to find
Hot food and friendly faces:
Consider whether this is a man,
Who labours in the mud
Who knows no peace
Who fights for a crust of bread
Who dies at a yes or a no.
Consider whether this is a woman,
Without hair or name
With no more strength to remember
Eyes empty and womb cold
As a frog in winter.
Consider that this has been:
I commend these words to you.
Engrave them on your hearts
When you are in your house, when you walk on your way,
When you go to bed, when you rise.
Repeat them to your children.
Or may your house crumble,
Disease render you powerless,
Your offspring avert their faces from you.
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Am not ranting, as there is already more than enough of that around here. But I will rave. Surely you know the rules by now from other people's journals: Comment with any subject that you would like me to rave about (I reserve the right to reject certain topics out-of-hand, like what a great job Dubya is doing or why Kathryn Janeway is the greatest female Trek character ever). I don't swear to rave long, but I do swear to rave loud. *g*
Today was pretty quiet, other than lunch with my Mistress who has promised me more lunch and Harry/Draco recs next week if I behave, some necessary shopping in the mall where we met, the usual Thursday carpool insanity and sitting on younger son's head to get the spelling homework done this evening, after which I needed an hour of Dawson's Creek to decompress. Was depressed writing articles about UPN's future for TrekToday -- hadn't realized that Veronica Mars was being considered for cancellation, I thought they'd been talking about bumping it up to CBS because it was so good! Then tonight relatives called (
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