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[Yvonne]

Geloofsymbolen rondom het slagveld




Het waren de Portugese troepen die tijdens Battle of the Lys ( 1918) dit “Christ of the trenches met zich meevoerden.
Het beeld herdenkt nu in Portugal “Portugal’s onbekende soldaat”


Kruisbeeld tussen de ruines te Neuve Chapelle


CHRIST IN FLANDERS

WE had forgotten You, or very nearly--
You did not seem to touch us very nearly--
Of course we thought about You now and then;
Especially in any time of trouble--
We knew that You were good in time of trouble--
But we are very ordinary men.
And there were always other things to think of--
There's lots of things a man has got to think of--
His work, his home, his pleasure, and his wife;
And so we only thought of You on Sunday--
Sometimes, perhaps, not even on a Sunday--
Because there's always lots to fill one's life.
And, all the while, in the street or lane or byway--
In country lane, in city street, or byway--
You walked among us, and we did not see.
Your feet were bleeding as You walked our pavements--
How did we miss Your Footprints on our pavements--
Can there be other folk as blind as we?
Now we remember; over here in Flanders
(It isn't strange to think of You in Flanders)--
This hideous warfare seems to make things clear.
We never thought about You much in England--
But now that we are far away from England--
We have no doubts, we know that You are here.
You helped us pass the jest along the trenches--
Where, in cold blood, we waited in the trenches--
You touched its ribaldry and made it fine.
You stood beside us in our pain and weakness--
We're glad to think You understand our weakness--
Somehow it seems to help us not to whine.
We think about You kneeling in the Garden--
Ah! God! the agony of that dread Garden--
We know You prayed for us upon the Cross.
If anything could make us glad to bear it--
'Twould he the knowledge that You willed to bear it--
Pain--death--the uttermost of human loss.
Ihouh we forgot You--You will not forget us--
We feel so sure that You will not forget us--
But stay with us until this dream is past.
And so we ask for courage, strength, and pardon--
Especially, I think, we ask for pardon--
And that You'll stand beside us to the last.

from Great Poems of the World War: Electronic Edition, W. D. Eaton


Uit een reisgids voor Vimy Pelgrims
John Hundevad, ed., The Vimy Pilgrimage, July 1936 [Ottawa: Veteran Limited 1936]


Uit eigen collectie


Christus en propaganda


Bronnen o.a.

http://beck.library.emory.edu/greatwar/poetry/view.php?id=eaton_Eaton040

http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/others/neuve_chapelle_short.html
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[mercatus]

Stoffen scapuliertjes zoals er gedragen werden door soldaten, op de rug en de borst.







mvg. mercatus
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Ik zoek alles i.v.m. de stad Aalst (B-9300) en zijn bevolking tijdens Wereldoorlog I (1914-1918)