Glory to the Patriots, to those who gave their precious lives as gift to our country’s independence, to our sovereignty and dignity, to our pride and peace.
Glory to our Patriots
To their courage and prowess, to their bravery and guts,to their resolve and sacrifice.
Glory to all Patriots
Who fell in the battles fighting the Fascists, fighting the aliens, on the payroll of the fierce, brutal Duce who sent them to disrupt our sacred Land, the Cradle of Humans.
Glory to all those who never thought twice,
never hesitated to trade, defeat with peace
opting straight for death, rather than disgrace.
Glory to the Patriots, who fought in the towns,who fought in the villages, in the valleys and rivers; in the mighty lands of our forefathers.
Our dear ancestors of past, many years
who handed us a country, free of humiliation, indignity and disgrace.
Glory to all those who bore high up the torches of pride, the flag of self-reliance, resolve and grace.
Glory to the Patriots, who never gave up for five long years
Even to chemical weapons, to the deadly gas, to the jets and bombings,
coming down like showers, across rivers and streams,
intended to terrorize the gents.
They endured hard, burning their faces
the overwhelming firepower of the Fascists
With spears and daggers, while the enemy had tanks and fire launchers to the crude atrocities, revenge and cowardly brutalities
that had developed and brewed through four decades
Ever since the Adwa days
when the enemy was then reduced to pieces
Submitting to defeat, submission and disgrace!
Glory to the Patriots
Who resisted to the return of the enemies
Who came back to the site of their demise
armed with even more incentive to go on and fight, until their last days.
until their last breath, until their force dries
And ended up free in their graves.
Never enjoyed a day of truce, peace with their families,
their sons and daughters.
Glory to the Patriots, the Nation’s true architects
The precursors of our peace, the authors of today’s essence
The grace of our nation, the treasure and fountain of independence,
The emblems for all Black Nations
The epitome of African pride, African grace,
The authors of the great movement of resistance to indignity and subservience.
Glory to all Patriots!
Not only in Ethiopia but all across the Universe
Even in Italy who fought the Fascists, in solidarity with us
Opposing the brutality of the Black Shirts,
the atrocities of the Squadristi, Mussolini’s Gangs,
his emissaries and envoys, killers’ messengers
who sowed terror and death, destruction among those in the Resistance!
Honest Italians who stood by our flanks
Defying the Duce, risking their lives,
facing torture and heinous criminal acts,
Those who stood up for human values, for the highest causes
Glory be to them! who stood up by our sides.
supporting our cause, in those critical and vital times
When everybody turned their faces against us
To those who sympathized with our cause
Condemning the brutality of gratuitous violence
The ruthlessness of Fascists’ forces and excesses
who burnt down churches and monasteries with the priests and monks, with civilians, innocent and clueless
inside the sacred premises, where God’s
words were the norms, where such profanity would never be conceived, let alone practiced in a safe haven of peace,massacred in great numbers, indiscriminately
indescribable acts, qualified only as barbarous!
Glory to the English, such as the Pankhursts
who embraced the Emperor’s cause, the Ethiopians’ cause
And stood along our side, all along the dark years,
publicizing Fascists’ atrocities, exposing to the world, the brutalities committed against innocent citizens
without distinction of gender, age and status.
Glory to all those who helped us,
our forefathers, parents and grandparents
Who fought tenaciously for months and
years
And enabled us see the light of peace, liberation from invaders, unwanted aliens, undesirable, ruthless foes!
Glory to the Martyrs
Your memory lives forever, your sacrifice never fades,
It enlightens our days, it brightens our lives, as long as we breathe on this earth!
Glory to May Fifth, Nineteen Forty-one,
the day we saw the light of independence and peace!
The day that will live and live …..in everyone’s conscience,
the day our flag was made to fly high up in the skies,
crowning five years of struggles, concluding five tough years
of martyrdom and sacrifice
The Ethiopian Herald may 10/2020
BY FITSUM GETACHEW
