(Excerpts from the Poem)

The Young Dead Soldiers
By Haim Hefer

"The young dead soldiers do not speak. Nevertheless, they are heard..."
(Archibald MacLeish)

The young dead soldiers do not speak, nevertheless they are heard
And their voice is strong and firm and it pertains to me and to you – to everyone
And it screams of the wounds, of their pain, and the dazing of senses – and their utter depletion of blood
And it screams of the books that they will not read, the movies that they will not see, and the love that they will never ever know again
And it screams of their brothers and their sons and their mothers with whom they will never be again
And those smells and colors and tastes which they had not experienced…
And it is a voice that knows better than we what a homeland and a country and a nation are
And what liberty is and independence and freedom and many phrases whose meaning has suddenly become clear
Because these are the things that the soldiers gave us at the moment of the fading away of their breath...

...And then the young dead soldiers say from within the ground:...
...now we come to you with a command stronger than a thousand trumpets
And we sing to you: Live as we died – with courage, with virtue, with sacrifice
Live as we died – with devotion, with love
Live as we died – with faith, with camaraderie, with integrity
Live as we died – with youth that is more beautiful than any adjective
Hope for the end of wars – be brave and strong
And live, for us the dead – Live!

The young dead soldiers do not speak, nevertheless they are heard
And we, facing their names and bidding their memory farewell
Must swear to the truth of their final testament
And that we will live the way we were commanded to live upon their death
For the sake of these dead, for the sake of those who live…


Translated by Esther Raizen


(Haim Hefer was very influenced by the poem "The Young Dead Soldiers" by Archibald MacLeish, an American poet, which was written in the period of WWI.
On November 9, 1973, in the midst of the Yom Kippur War, Haim Hefer, using the title and a quotation from the original poem, wrote his own version.) P.H.