Victor Hugo: At last, a peaceful strain!

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

French writers on war and peace

Victor Hugo: Selections on war

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Victor Hugo
From The Universal Republic
Translator unknown

Ye, liberated lands, we hail!
Your sails are whole despite the gale!
Your masts are firm, and will not fail –
The triumph follows pain!
Hear forges roar! the hammer clanks –
It beats the time to nations’ thanks –
At last, a peaceful strain!

Tis rust, not gore, that gnaws the guns,
And shattered shells are but the runs
Where warring insects cope;
And all the headsman’s racks and blades
And pincers, tools of tyrants’ aids,
Are buried with the rope.