War Music

Whatever caught and brought and kept them here,
Under Troy's ocre wall for ten burnt years,
Is lost: and for a while they join a terrible equality;
Are virtuous, self-sacrificing, free;
And so insidious is this liberty
That those surviving it will bear
An even greater servitude to its root;
Believing they were whole, while they were brave,
That they were rich, because their loot was great;
That war was meaningful, because they lost their friends.

Christopher Logue: Extracto de "War Music", adaptação livre da Ilíada.