SECOND ODE
SECOND ODE — TO GLORY
Whoever said that glory
was as purposeless
as those who seek it
and burn myrrh to it,
spoke falsely.
Glory bestows wings
on those who seek it,
directs them
to the rough and
difficult path of virtue.
Whoever accepts
the call of glory
but refuses to follow it
has an impotent soul
and a contemptible heart
He has never shed tears
over the graves
of his friends
nor ever kissed
the soil of his kin.
Oh, Hellas, you have seeded
the fiery desire of glory
in the hearts of your sons
and thus are called
the mother of us all.
As when the lion
emerges from its den
charging and wounding,
killing and scattering alike
brave hunters and multitudes of Arabs,
Manolis Aligizakis 