“Sit down and bargain / all you, like grizzled old foxes / we’ll wall you up in a splendid palace /with food, wine, good beds and a good fire / provided that you discuss, negotiate / for our and your children’s lives /may all the wisdom of the universe /converge to bless your minds / and guide you in the maze / but outside in the cold we will be waiting for you. The army of those who died in vain, we of The Marne, we of Montecassino / Treblinka, Dresden and Hiroshima / and with us will be / the leprous and the people with trachoma / the disappeared ones of Buenos Aires / dead Cambodians and dying Ethiopians / the Prague negotiators / the bled dry of Calcutta / the innocents slaughtered in Bologna / Heaven help you if you come out disagreeing / you’ll be clutched tight in our embrace / we are invincible because we are the conquered / invulnerable because already dead / we laugh at your missiles / sit down and bargain / until your tongues are dry / if the havoc and the shame continue / we’ll drown you in our putrefaction.”

song of those who died in vain, Primo Levi