If hearts could be smelted by hot tears that flow
My heart would have melted a long while ago.
If tears had the strength to wash buildings away
I'd not have a home, to no house could I go.

My life is the saddest a woman has known.
The war took our sons. It killed two of my own.
Why should my heart, which is not made of granite,
Have to prove stronger than cold, heavy stone?

My son will soon marry, the third, youngest boy,
The one son of mine the war did not destroy.
I'll give to his wife at their wedding a necklace,
A string of bright tears I am shedding for joy.

O, Lord, I've no strength to resist the great strain
Of kneeling by gravesides again and again,
Of gazing at orphans and drifting grey ashes.
May Peace banish war and thro' all the world reign!

1966