25 de Abril

Esta é a madrugada que eu esperava

O dia inicial inteiro e limpo

Onde emergimos da noite e do silêncio

E livres habitamos a substância do tempo

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen

Soneto escrito na morte de todos os Antifascistas assassinados pela PIDE

Vararam-te no corpo e não na força

e não importa o nome de quem era

naquela tarde foste apenas corça

indefesa morrendo às mãos das feras.

Mas feras é demais. Apenas hienas

tão pútridas tão fétidas tão cães

que na sombra farejam as algemas

do nome agora morto que tu tens.

Morreste às mãos da tarde mas foi cedo,

Morreste porque não às mãos do medo

que a todos pôs calados e cativos.

Por essa tarde havemos de vingar-te

por essa morte havemos de cantar-te:

Para nós não há mortos. Só há vivos.

José Carlos Ary dos Santos

Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen

Les représentants du peuple français, constitués en Assemblée nationale, considérant que l’ignorance, l’oubli ou le mépris des droits de l’homme sont les seules causes des malheurs publics et de la corruption des gouvernements, ont résolu d’exposer, dans une déclaration solennelle, les droits naturels, inaliénables et sacrés de l’homme, afin que cette déclaration, constamment présente à tous les membres du corps social, leur rappelle sans cesse leurs droits et leurs devoirs; afin que les actes du pouvoir législatif et ceux du pouvoir exécutif, pouvant être à chaque instant comparés avec le but de toute institution politique, en soient plus respectés; afin que les réclamations des citoyens, fondées désormais sur des principes simples et incontestables, tournent toujours au maintien de la Constitution et au bonheur de tous.

26/VIII/1789

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln

Gettysburg, 19/XI/1863

Requiem

When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
“It is done.”
People did not like it here.

Kurt Vonnegut

Joe Heller

True story, Word of Honor:

Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer

now dead,

and I were at a party given by a billionaire

on Shelter island.

I said, "Joe, how does it make you feel

to know that our host only yesterday

may have made more money

than your novel 'Cach-22'

has earned in its entire history?"

And Joe said, "I've got something he can never have."

And I said, "What on earth could that be, Joe?"

And Joe said, "The knowledge that I've got enough."

Not bad! Rest in peace!

Kurt Vonnegut

The New Yorker, May 16th, 2005

Els Segadors

Catalunya, triomfant,
tornarà a ser rica i plena!
Endarrera aquesta gent
tan ufana i tan superba!

Bon cop de falç!
Bon cop de falç,
defensors de la terra!
Bon cop de falç!

Ara és hora, segadors!
Ara és hora d'estar alerta!
Per quan vingui un altre juny
esmolem ben bé les eines!

Bon cop de falç!
Bon cop de falç,
defensors de la terra!
Bon cop de falç!

Que tremoli l'enemic
en veient la nostra ensenya:
com fem caure espigues d'or,
quan convé seguem cadenes!

Bon cop de falç!
Bon cop de falç,
defensors de la terra!
Bon cop de falç!

Hymne Nacional de Catalunya