On dictatorships

 I am happy to sell my freedom for a plate of ready-made food

I am happy to sell my dignity to have fun

I am happy to sell my independence because I am afraid to take on the responsibility of freedom

I am happy to sell Peace

I am happy to sell Life

Because War will hide my own mess

And death will make me equal and like you

And I have not been able to feel this while I am alive because I have not learned to love

I am happy with fascism because 'Barbarians are always a certain solution'

And we lived quietly

And we were comfortable in our complacency

And we justified our indifference thoughtfully and skeptically 

By blaming the children instead of the tyrants.

Our eyes were closed, and our hearts were closed

For us tyranny was both necessary and inevitable

An uprising seemed absurd and unjust

Fortunately, the mistake was ours

 

16-1-1974 Thessaloniki Greece

Maria Papagianni Michalopoulou 

 Me and my mother, Maria Papagianni Michalopoulou

She wrote that poem after the Greek dictatorship's fall in 1973.*

Sadly it's is still relevant.

* Translated from Greek by Lotous Michalopoulou