Peace - por José Maria LOPERA

              Pueta José Maria LOPERA

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PEACE

How terrible is the anger of the men that kill,

of the volcano that inside melts down feelings,

’til souls break in a crater of extermination!

What storm, what thunder, what flash of violence

seeks to kill or mutilate those who are innocent!

Where is the light of the smile, placed

by God into mankind that it may love?

And where is it, the light of awakening,

that shines between men when they live in harmony?

Where is it, Peace? Tell me. Where is it?

Time itself cries complaint in the seconds when

a shell delays even the terror that you feel,

and when it goes off, in its smoke you can breathe

the pleasure to feel life amongst the dead.

I knew as a child the smell of my blood

in the horrible panic of the whistling bomb.

I overflowed with the hurt of my wounded flesh,

the lacerating fear that time does not cancel,

and the scream that I bear that curses war.

And you who speak so much of God,

who invoke Him so often against the rest,

who worship Him so much in his justice,

what rubbish soul do you keep Him in?

Tell me. What race, what land, remains

for you  to defend or else to attack

with fangs of fratricidal hate

if your fanaticism isn’t worth

the dying breath of a single child?

If God is the LIGHT of life in HARNONY

And an eternal source of a LIBERTY sublime…

Where is the PEACE that he put in your spirit?

With what seed of hate did you sow it,

that yields blades of death from the wounded earth?

© Copyright José María LOPERA

Translation: Frank Sanders