Iraq War Grief Daily Witness (photo) Day 229

this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters

with deep appreciation today for all who visit and support this series

we honor courage in all its forms

cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.

image and poem below the fold

Relatives comfort each other after being told loved ones have been killed as they gather at the Husseini hospital following a suicide bomb attack in the holy city of Karbala, 100 kms south of Baghdad. At least 120 people, including five US soldiers, were killed in bomb attacks across Iraq, fuelling sectarian tensions as the country looks to form a new government.
(AFP/Qassem Zein)

A Friend Consigned to Death (an excerpt)
by Homer
translated by Robert Fitzgerald

“Sleeping so? Thou hast forgotten me,
Akhilleus. Never was I uncared for
in life but am in death. Accord me burial
in all haste: let me pass the gates of Death.
Shades that are images of used-up men
motion me away, will not receive me
among their hosts beyond the river. I wander
about the wide gates and the hall of Death.
Give me your hand. I sorrow.
When thou shalt have allotted me my fire
I will not fare here from the dark again.
As living men we’ll no more sit apart
from our companions, making plans. The day
of wrath appointed for me at my birth
engulfed and took me down. Thou too, Akhilleus,
face iron destiny, godlike as thou art,
to die under the wall of highborn Trojans.
One more message, one behest, I leave thee:
not to inter my bones apart from thine
but close together, as we grew together,
in thy family’s hall. Menoitios
from Opoeis had brought me, under a cloud,
a boy still, on the day I killed the son
of Lord Amphídamas–though I wished it not–
in childish anger over a game of dice.
Pêleus, master of horse, adopted me
and reared me kindly, naming me your squire.
So may the same urn hide our bones, the one
of gold your gracious mother gave.”
– – –
put a meaningful magnet on your car or metal filing cabinet