Angelica Balabanoff

To the Austrian Victims of Fascism


Published: American Socialist Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 1, March, 1936, p. 2.
Transcribed: by Zdravko Saveski, 2022.


                                                        "Fear not tyrants shall rule
                                                for ever."
                                                                                            Shelley.

        We see your gallows...
We ask not where are your graves
We know but this: you were no slaves.
Every hour and everywhere
Is heard your voice. Somewhere
From the deep silence of tomb and mould,
It rises and o'er the world it echoes bold;
"Fear not tyrants shall rule forever"
Think not freedom can never
Bless humanity; think not the dark prolonged night
Shall last eternally and light
Shall never pierce darkness and cloud.

                Rise, and fight and fight again,
                Slaves, you have to break the chain.

        All must die
All but spirit. That survives...
Misery, slavery is no tie,
It but gives wings the slave to fly.
Enslaved we longed for freedom;
        This was our doom.
They tortured us and took our lives,
But not our spirit; that survives...

        Our mothers, wives and children
        Do not cry.
        They know wherefore we had to die.

                Our death has not been in vain
                If you, oh brethren, smash the chain.

        We see your gallows...