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florydev
Community Member

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
  That mark our place; and in the sky
  The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
  Loved and were loved, and now we lie
      In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
  The torch; be yours to hold it high.
  If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
      In Flanders fields.

18 REPLIES 18
VladimirG
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hail to you, imperial galleys! Restrain your mighty rudders!
Stroke your oars silently!
I’m proudly officiating a sublime Requiem in the chill of the night 
Upon these sacred waters.

 

Here at the bottom, where seashells tire in sleep
And upon the dead algae peat falls,
Stretch the graves of the brave, couched brother
beside brother, Prometheuses of Hope, Apostles of Pain.

 

Don’t you feel the wafting sea,
That it may not trouble their holy repose?
From the deep abyss peaceful slumber ebbs,
And in tiring flight the moonlight slowly passes.

 

This is a mysterious temple and a sad graveyard
With decaying carcasses, unfathomably real.
Silent like the night on the tip of the Ionian Sea 
Dark as a conscience, cold and despairing.

 

Don’t you feel from your most depressing moods
That piety grows over this benediction
And the air fills with curious gentleness?
That great soul of the fallen roams

 

Hail to you, imperial galleys! Upon this tomb my dear kindred ones 
Veil the trumpets in mourning black.
Let your sentry, upright, chant the holy dirge 
Here, where waves come to an embrace!

 

For the centuries will pass as the white foam 
vanishes upon the sea without a trace,
And a new and great age will come in its place,
To create a splendid home upon this grave.

 

But these waters, in which was shrouded
the terrible mystery of the Epic,
these waters will be a cradle in Time of legends revealed,
Where the soul will seek out its Destiny.

 

Buried are here once ancient garlands
And the passing joy of more than one generation,
That’s why this cemetery lies in the shadow of waves
Between the bosom of the sea and the vault celestial.

 

Hail to you, imperial galleys! Extinguish the torches,
Let the oars come to a blustering rest,
And when the Requiem prayers are said, steal away into the dark night
inaudibly and with reverential awe.

 

I wish for the eternal silence to rule
and for the glorious dead to hear the noise of Battles,
And rejoice in our cries of victory, as we cast ourselves beneath 
the wings of Glory upon the fields vermillion with blood.

 

For, there far away, battles sway 
With the same blood that emanates from this resting-place:
Here above the eye of the resting lords,
There before the son’s history is made.

 

That’s why I seek peace, to officiate a Requiem
without words, without tears and quiet sighs,
Mingle with the odor of powder, the perfume of incense
As we hear resound the far noise of the cannon.

 

Hail to you, imperial galleys! In the name of a conscientious fast
Glide lightly upon these sacred waters.
A Requiem I’m officiating, one that heavens
have yet to see upon these sacred waters!

~ Vladimir
Upwork

This is what is was like:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH3-Gt7mgyM

This is WWI 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS1dO0JC2EE

Degrading, inglorious, unnecessary, and a disgusting waste of life in the name of politics. 

Congratulations to Mark and all the respondants you officially posted stuff wayyyy over my head. I have no idea what is going on. Ignorance is bliss and so wonderful I tell you what.


Jennifer M wrote:

Congratulations to Mark and all the respondants you officially posted stuff wayyyy over my head. I have no idea what is going on. Ignorance is bliss and so wonderful I tell you what.


It is because of this poem that UK people wear poppies to commemorate the victims of wars. 


Martina P wrote:

Jennifer M wrote:

Congratulations to Mark and all the respondants you officially posted stuff wayyyy over my head. I have no idea what is going on. Ignorance is bliss and so wonderful I tell you what.


It is because of this poem that UK people wear poppies to commemorate the victims of wars. 


oh, I have seriously never heard any of this. TIL. Thanks! I saw the political comment and thought it had to do with Daddy getting evicted.

For many years, the US wore poppies, too.  Not sure when it started to fade away but I remember veterans handing them out on the street when I was a child.  My great-uncle was a doughboy in France in the trenches but never wanted to talk about it.

florydev
Community Member


Jennifer M wrote:

Congratulations to Mark and all the respondants you officially posted stuff wayyyy over my head. I have no idea what is going on. Ignorance is bliss and so wonderful I tell you what.


You are welcome.

 

It was Veteran's Day here in the US, I believe called Rememberance Day and much of the rest of the world and the poem was written by a WWI soldier.  The way I remember it is that poppies tend to grow over the graves of soldiers buried in way because the way the ground is impacted by the battle.

 

And contrary to the other answers you have given the idea of people wearing poppies, I believe, originated in the US (the just barely participant in the war).

The poem was written by a Canadian soldier, John McCrae. (Canada being largely ignored in its  heroic contribution to the allies  in both wars). The poppy as a remembrance emblem was an incentive by a French woman, Madame Guerin, who was an educationist in Madagascar and gave lectures throughout northern America.  That is a short story - there is a whole lot more on Wikipedia. 


Kim F wrote:

This is what is was like:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH3-Gt7mgyM


I would watch this if you really wanted to know what it was like: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcgceA64aAI&list=UL_XizZGHekio&index=1194

 

Although if the recent movie 1918 is perhaps has one of the most incredible shots in movie history as well as really showing what it might have been like.

This was the war in which  all sides lost and where countless young men were needlessly sacrificed or maimed.  A war that was triggered by a handful of what these days, we would call terrorists, who decided that assassination would right the wrongs done to them ... 

 

And we haven't learned anything since then ... 


Nichola L wrote:

This was the war in which  all sides lost and where countless young men were needlessly sacrificed or maimed ... 


That's a pretty accurate description of every conflict throughout history.

~ Vladimir
Upwork


Vladimir G wrote:

Nichola L wrote:

This was the war in which  all sides lost and where countless young men were needlessly sacrificed or maimed ... 


That's a pretty accurate description of every conflict throughout history.

_____________________________________________


I might like a discussion on that. But I feel it applies particularly to  WWI - one of the more recent wars that did not directly involve religion (arguable perhaps)..


Mark F wrote:

Kim F wrote:

This is what is was like:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH3-Gt7mgyM


I would watch this if you really wanted to know what it was like: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcgceA64aAI&list=UL_XizZGHekio&index=1194

 

 


Really? As opposed to pretending? It really was like the clip I posted. Young men pointlessly charging into death while knowing that's what they were doing and being powerless to do otherwise.  

Thanks, Vladimir. This led me to research a tiny bit and reminded me how US-centric my history education was.

 

One of the most gripping fictional films based on WWI is Stanley Kubrick's "Paths to Glory," starring the recently deceased Kirk Douglas. The film is a gritty portrayal of the futility of trench warfare, and of the desperation of the soldiers.

 

See also "All Quiet on the Western Front" (book preferred to the film).


Janean L wrote:

One of the most gripping fictional films based on WWI is Stanley Kubrick's "Paths to Glory," starring the recently deceased Kirk Douglas. The film is a gritty portrayal of the futility of trench warfare, and of the desperation of the soldiers.

 

See also "All Quiet on the Western Front" (book preferred to the film).

_________________________________


Oh What a Lovely War (1969) directed by Richard Attenborough is another excellent WW I movie, a satirical musical, that starts with nationlistic optimism and ends in despair and hopelessnes.The poppy is present throughout and symbolizes bloodshed and death.  It's old but is worth watching. 

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