The "poetry" of the battlefields

For: Javier Reverte (text and photos)

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He wrote Graham Greene that "over time, even the battlefields seem poetic places ". I've seen a few in the course of my travels, for historical inquiries inevitably push me towards them. And generally preserved for remembrance, because most men admire most wins in war than in peace victories. And even, sometimes, come to admire their defeats. There are many examples: Balaclava, Trafalgar, Little Big Horn, the Ebro, Pearl Harbour ... We are definitely a species rather schizoid.

Last year, while walking through the field of Gettysburg -Where in 1863 suffered his great defeat Confederate armies against northerners, during the Civil War-, I saw a guy coming up to a hill with a horn in hand. Was placed at the foot of a statue of General Ulysses Grant and swept the silence of the woods with a touch of silence in honor of the dead of a century and a half. A few years earlier, while I was in the quiet countryside of Insandlhwana, South Africa, the place where the Zulus massacred in 1879 an English army-, the recently saw a car that get dropped a couple of tourists. I thought for a while and prayed, to finally, left a bouquet of flowers next to a pile of rocks guarding a tomb. Close, goats grazed among the mounds, ignorant of such glory and human barbarism. Pure poetry, and say.

most men admire most wins in war that peace wins

But, I must admit that There are a battleground where my excitement far exceeds disgust me the idea of ​​war. I mean Marathon, the place where the Athenians defeated the Persians in the 490 before Christ. Place, located in a cove 42 kilometers from the city of Athens, is today a tourist center with hotels, restaurants, stores "souvenirs" and Nordic people who swelter in the sun. In that battle are only a small museum with some pieces that recall the meeting and column parts of Victoria that the Greeks rose in memory of his victory. And of course, in the courtyard next to the beach, still stands the great mound several feet high, in an almost pyramidal, where the residues buried 192 Athenians killed in the battle (the Persians lost 6.400 men).

The important thing is that Marathon the Athenian army represented the first democracy in history, while the Persian army of conquest represented the ambitions of a tyrannical absolute monarch and. Ten thousand soldiers of democracy defeated twenty thousand of tyranny. If it had been the other way around, perhaps never in human history had begun to spring a democracy. When General Miltiades, chief of the Greeks, gave the order to attack, was opening the way our votes today.
Therefore, Marathon, I wish I had a bugle to launch a touch of victory.

JAVIER REVERTE

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Comments (15)

  • home

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    What a wonderful!

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  • Charly

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    Grande Reverte!

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  • Erika

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    Una vez mas, el maestro Reverte no defrauda. Enhorabuena a VAP!! Todo un acierto su fichaje. Fantasticos los reportaje

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  • Anne

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    Aupa Reverte! As always, el maestro no defrauda. Enhorabuena a VAP por el acierto part fichaje.

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  • Quique

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    Interesting reflection. Un lujo tener por aquí, Xavier. Welcome!!

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  • Step By Step

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    Pues a mi los campos de batalla me dan repelús…

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  • Backpacker

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    Hey Javier, to read you joy. No sabia que te Prodi garas por la Red, ¿Para cuando nuevo libro de viajes?

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  • Teo

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    Yes sir, a good article. ¿Va a estar mucho por esta página tiempor señor Reverte? Greetings

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  • Juancho

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    Magnificent chronic. Enhorabuena a VAP por el fichaje, y al por fichaje VAP!!!

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  • elisa

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    Gran R Evert! Qué bien Escriba!. Prodígate MAS!.

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  • ontheroad

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    Pues Estuve one Atenas, pero no sabia que estaba tan cerca Marathon. Thanks, Xavier

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  • Maribel

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    Amazing. Un gran fichaje para VAP. Congratulations

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  • Paco Gómez

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    ¿Por qué tiene tan claro que los buenos eran los atenienses y los malos los Persas? Grecia no fue tan perfecta

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  • Isabel

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    Impersiona me and I like, but em afraid of war poetry

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  • Lalo

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    Unfortunately, without some battles such as Marathon or Normandy which have many people live without freedom

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