XII
Mass
(For Spanish translation click here)

At the end of the battle,

and dead the fighter a man came up to him

and said: “Don’t die, I love you so much!”

But the corpse alas! Went on dying.

Two more men came to him and whispered repeatedly:

“Don’t leave us! Courage! Return to life!”

But the corpse alas! Went on dying.

Then came twenty more, one hundred, one thousand, five thousand

claiming: “So much love, and to be powerless against death!”

But the corpse alas! Went on dying.

Millions of individuals surrounded him

with a common prayer: “Stay, brother!”

But the corpse alas! Went on dying.

Then, all the men of the earth

surrounded him; the corpse gazing up at the crowd, sadly,

deeply moved, he raised up slowly,

and put his arms around the first man who spoke, and began to walk . . .

10 November 1937