Nikos Kazantzakis: Blood-lapping Ares

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

Nikos Kazantzakis: Selections on war

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Nikos Kazantzakis
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel
Translated by Kimon Friar

Blood-lapping Ares strode behind him, fully armed,
rolling between the mountain peaks, bursting on rocks,
twisting and turning like a crab caught in the fire,
and we on slippery pebbles lay and laughed with joy.

War mounted his black steed until the stones flashed fire,
he knocked at night on taverns, knocked on doors at dawn,
till wives and mothers wept and sisters swooned, but he
grabbed young men by their hair and hung them from his saddle.

“Brothers, refuse to bring supplies to the Egyptian army,
do not embalm the dead, my brothers – let them rot!
Refuse to bear arms, don’t march to war’s slaughter-shed!

“But now I liken your full mind to those rich lords
who soon as they return from plundering, seek new roads,
take in their towers their armies with their families, too,
spread feasting boards for them to gorge on, fields to play,
then with great cunning cram them full of wine and food
that the brave lads might grow into lean meat for war
and make themselves a crow-god that will gnaw their guts.”