One Day I Saw Blood Flow, Poem by Victor Hugo

Poem by Victor Hugo Collection The Terrible YearThemes WarPeriod 19th century

One day I saw blood flow from every side;
An immense massacre was scattered in the shadows;
And they were killing. Why? To kill. O misery!
Seeing this, I believed it was necessary
That someone raise his voice, and I spoke.
I said that Montrevel and Bâville and Harlay
Were not of this century, and that in days of turmoil
The darkness redoubles through the blackness of all;
I affirmed that it is good to examine a little
Before saying Aim and commanding Fire!
For sparing the mad, even the reckless,
To those who have been vanquished, showing that we are their brothers,
Is just and wise; we must understand each other, we must unite;
I recalled that a God sees us, that the future,
Dark when we hate each other, brightens when we love,
And that misfortune grows for the one who sows it;
I declared that everything can be calmed by degrees;
That assassinations are not repaired
By a new crime that is piled upon the other;
That no good answer is given to murder
By machine-gunning heaps of women and children;
That changing triumphant soldiers into executioners,
Is giving them a glory in which shame floats above;
And, pensive, I placed myself across the carnage.
Sad, not approving the vastness of the shroud,
Deeming that the punishment is for the guilty alone,
Thinking that one must not, alas! cast the crime
Of a few upon all, and punish with the abyss
Paris, a people, a world, punished by chance,
I said: Do justice, yes, but have pity!
Then I became the object of public hatred. The church hurled the biblical anathema at me,
The kings expulsion, the passersby stones;
Whoever has mud threw some; the wolves,
The dogs, barked behind me; the crowd
Booed me almost as much as a tyrant who collapses;
They shook their fists at me in the street; and I had
To see more than one old friend avoid me in panic.
The smiling killers and the ferocious revelers,
Those who have their carriages followed by a cart,
The dancers of former times, the throat-slitters of today,
Those who drink champagne and blood,
Those who are elegant while being fierce,
The Haynaus, the Tavannes, having strange black flies,
Known to the charnel house, on their staff,
The improvisers of firing squads,
Judge Lynch, King Bomba, Mingrat the priest,
Cried out to me: Murderer! and Judas said to me: Traitor!

Victor Hugo

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-one-day-i-saw-blood-flow-victor-hugo/