In Praise of Martyrs

We praise to high heavens
And for all time
The heroes who die
In the hands of the enemy
In the battlefield
In the torture chamber
And against the wall.
In these bloody places,
The struggle is sharpest
And the meaning of one’s life
Is tested in one crucial moment.
Courage to the last breath
Makes the martyr live beyond death.

Jose Maria Sison
9 December 1977