Lilika Nakos: Do you think the war will ever end?

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Women writers on peace and war

Lilika Nakos: Selections on war

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Lilika Nakos
From The Children’s Inferno (1946)
Translated by Allan Ross Macdougall

“Aren’t you sleeping either?” asked Spyros.

“No, it’s too warm and it stinks here. I’m looking at the sky.”

“It’s pretty, eh? I’d like to have a boat and sail about the sky.”

“Why a boat when you can get a plane?”

“I don’t want those! They disgust me since they’re used to kill people. I’d like to have a boat to sail about the sky and find my Old Man.”

“Was that your grandfather?”

“No, but I loved him better than a grandfather. Oh, how I’d love to cast anchor at a star for a while, until the war ends. What do you think? Do you think it’ll ever end?”