We Are Brothers

WE ARE BROTHERS 1. Don’t look at me as though I am an alien or stranger, Don’t let the dagger of antipathy fly out of your eyes, I am your neighbor! Don’t call me foe, antagonist or rival, Don’t roll up your mistrustful sleeves to have a fight, I am your friend! Don’t hold this murderous weapon in your kind hand, Don’t deny me the right to work, to eat, to live, I am your BROTHER! 2. If destiny willed me to be born on this side of the Frontier line, If my parents wished me these clothes to wear And taught me their own dances, Do we have to be adversaries? If fate desired me to speak this foreign tongue, And the color of my skin to be different than yours, Do we have to be competitors? If necessity decided in this country, in the North, or South, or East, or West to live, Do we have to be opponents? If I believe in Jesus, Jehovah, Krishna, Buddha, Brahma or Allah, If this is my philosophy, my tradition, my history and my culture, Do we have to be enemies? NO! A million times NO! 3. Please, look at me with new eyes and through away your injurious prejudices, What do you see but a person like you who wants, Desires and hopes the same things in life: Happiness, family, well-being, a home, some friends, Some love, Look! I walk, I talk, I eat, I sleep, I dream, I laugh and I cry, just like you, I’m born, I grow up, I learn, I suffer, I bleed and I die, just like you, I’m a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, a son, a daughter, Just like you, You see, we are alike, we are the same, we are BROTHERS! 4. Listen to me my neighbor, my friend, my ally, I am telling you the truth: We are victims of schemes well- planned in advance, By deceitful, evil-hearted men who wished, Your distraction and mine, They: masters of savage forgery, dividers Of mankind, Have tricked us throughout history with Well-orchestrated lies, And with treacherous stories, these intellectually impotent criminals, Have instilled tons of poison in your heart and mine, Thus, by cultivating hatred, bitterness and rage, Managed to shape us to ruthless foes, to merciless enemies, To cruel animals, Please, listen to me! It is true! We are BROTHERS! 5. Let us, therefore, with irresistible will cross all frontier lines, That the past has erected between us, thus making divisions Vanish. Let us, with supreme power, break the bonds of history, Religion and culture and run into each- others arms, Let us uproot, from our tormented hearts, thorny mistrust That was planted there thousands of years ago, Let us seize ammunition from distractive hatred And make war capitulate, Let us sink the cholera of bitterness in the affectionate sea Of universal brotherhood and finally, Let us unite and march to higher claims, to incomparable glory, Where peace can blossom today, Thus, both of us my brother, AT LAST! Will go to sleep, Fearless of each other tonight! © Demetrios Trifiatis 08 June 2013