Green Hill

Still in the frame of mind - anthropophagic, animist - of the last post, still perusing (thanks to Joseph Löbb's dad, who also pointed out this particular poem to me) Adam Makkai, ed., IN QUEST OF THE ‘MIRACLE STAG’: THE POETRY OF HUNGARY, Volume 1 (Chicago: Atlantis-Centaur, 1996) - wherein this résumé appears on p. 264:

CIVILISATION

In the past the warring nations
Did not follow any precept:
The strong plundered what he could, and
Everything he looted, he kept.

That has changed now, as the world has
A more legalistic flavor:
When the strong now do some mischief
They confer and - vote in favor.

- János Arany (1817-1882), trans. Peter Zollman