Song Of Those Who Died In Vain

(Primo Levi [1919 - 1987])

Sit down and bargain

All you like grizzled old foxes

We'll wall you up in a splendid palace

With food, wine, good beds and a good fire

Provided that you discuss, negotiate

For our and your children's lives

May all the wisdom of the universe

Converge to bless your minds

And guide you in the maze

But outside in the cold we will be waiting for you

The army of those who died in vain

We of the Marne, of Montecassino

Treblinka, Dresden and Hiroshima

And with us will be

The leprous and the people with trachoma

The disappeared ones of Buenos Aires

Dead Cambodians and dying Ethiopians



The Prague negotiatiors

The bled dry of Calcutta

The innocents slaughtered in Bologna

Heaven help you if you come out disagreeing

You'll be clutched tight in our embrace

We are invincible because we are the conquered

Invulnerable because already dead

We laugh at your missiles

Sit down and bargain

Until your tongues are dry

If the havoc and the shame continue

We'll drown you in our putrefaction

Primo Levi

14th January 1985

Poem published by Faber & Faber Ltd.