terrorist tragedies

[David G. Post]

At 10:15 AM 9/13/01 +0200, you wrote:
>Dear Colleagues,
>
>the terroristic attacks against the United States of America certainly
>shocked all of us.
>I would like to express my deep sorrow at those horrible events. I am not
>able to find the right words; therefore, I print below the message of our
>university's president (URL: http://www.fu-berlin.de/en/aktuell/wtc.html).
>
>Johannes Stegmann

Nobody can find the right words.  I have found the words of the great
English poet WH Auden, written on another black day in human history,
somehow comforting.
David Post
******************

"September 1, 1939"
W.H. Auden


I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade;
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night

. . .

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.