Rebecca West: "Foram para ir para o mercado, armado com os poderes da...

"Foram para ir para o mercado, armado com os poderes da feitiçaria, e tomar um camponês pelos ombros e sussurrar para ele: 'Na sua vida, você tem paz conhecida? Espere por sua resposta, sacuda os ombros e transforme-o em seu pai, e pergunte a ele a mesma pergunta, e transforme-o em sua vez de seu pai, eu nunca ouviria a palavra "sim", se eu carregasse meu questionamento dos mortos de volta por mil anos. Eu sempre ouviu: 'Não, houve medo, havia nossos inimigos sem, nossos governantes dentro, havia prisão, havia tortura, havia morte violenta."

--- Rebecca West

Versão em inglês

Were I to go down into the market-place, armed with the powers of witchcraft, and take a peasant by the shoulders and whisper to him, 'In your lifetime, have you known peace?' wait for his answer, shake his shoulders and transform him into his father, and ask him the same question, and transform him in his turn to his father, I would never hear the word 'Yes,' if I carried my questioning of the dead back for a thousand years. I would always hear, 'No, there was fear, there were our enemies without, our rulers within, there was prison, there was torture, there was violent death.