Proverbs

Quae nocent docent.
Things that hurt, teach.

Vincit qui se vincit.
He wins control who controls himself. -Seneca

Dulce et Decorum Est

(Is it really dulce et decorum est pro patria mori? That is, “Is it sweet and fitting to die for the fatherland”? or “Is there no greater honor than to die for one’s country”? Read the poem and see if you agree with the poet, Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.


Gas! GAS! quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gurgling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitten as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Dulce (sweet)
Decorum (honorable)

Wilfred Owen himself died fighting for England in World War I, just one week before the armistice was signed and the war ended.

The same Beasts roar everywhere

I came across this article by Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. The context of the article is bloody protests that were held against the Miss Universe contest being hosted by Nigeria in 2002. Most of what he has written is greatly applicable to the Indian scenario as well.