dimanche 29 juillet 2012

Le monde de Arñna


We made our houses graves
And our graves are home to us
Our houses burned down
And our graves were looted
We climbed to the summits
We went deep into the earth
We were drenched in water
They came and got us
They burned and destroyed us
They plundered us
And we,
For the sake of our mothers,
Our women,
And for the sake of our dead,
And we,
In the name of our honor
And our freedom,
We the people of this land,
Who sought mass suicide,
We left a fire behind us,
Never to die out ...
 

traduit par Azra Erhat (1915-1982), à partir d'une inscription trouvée lors des fouilles du site d'Arñna (Xanthos)

Source : Lycia, Ten Books, un guide de voyage ; pour des sources plus anciennes, Hérodote, Histoires (I, 176).