A Summary of War and Peace/ Bat-chen Shahak-1994

(eighth grade)

There is not much left to say

We’re in a sort of halfway spot.

Nor is there real war’

And for us, we’re marching forward towards peace,

Ready to understand the others.

Prepared to make changes,

With one clear goal;

To be rid of the hatred

Buried deep inside us for so long,

And with the understanding

That it’s easy to make enemies.

But that the wise thing is to find friends.

We come as people, who know a lot about war,

But very little about peace.

From now on we’ll begin to change that.

Behind the fine words are years and years

Of suffering, pain, anxiety and fear.

Now to all these words

A new word, hope, is added,

A little strange, a little different, perhaps.

in fact it was with us all along/

(Even in war)

And because of it we never remained alone in the struggle.

Yet, if we talk about peace, we cannot conclude

Without the song that became the hymn of peace.

Together with the hope in our hearts

That remained with us all our lives.

Those whose light went out and are buried in the earth.

Bat-Chen's poem to peace(eighth grade,)

Peace - it's a kind of dream
That holds only good things,
An easy life with no complications.
Because peace means
there are no enemies,
and you're not appalled
all over again, each time
another awful attack happens.

War and Peace (eighth grade,)

War is a terrible thing,

it takes away the most beautiful gift we've been given – life.

Because of it bereaved mothers

stand facing the grave, in disbelief

and in their innermost heart,

hope it didn't happen, that it's simply a bad dream.