Habeas Corpus Poem by Michael Burch

These are antinatalist poems by Michael R. Burch and antinatalist translations of poets like Sophocles and Abu al-Ala Al-Ma'arri.



Habeas Corpus
by Michael R. Burch

from 'Songs of the Antinatalist'

I have the results of your DNA analysis.
If you want to have children, this may induce paralysis.
I wish I had good news, but how can I lie?
Any offspring you have are guaranteed to die.
It wouldn't be fair—I'm sure you'll agree—
to sentence kids to death, so I'll waive my fee.



Bittersight
by Michael R. Burch

for Abu al-Ala Al-Ma'arri, an ancient antinatalist poet

To be plagued with sight
in the Land of the Blind,
—to know birth is death
and that Death is kind—
is to be flogged like Eve
(stripped, sentenced and fined)
because evil is 'good'
as some 'god' has defined.



Since time dawned
only the dead have experienced peace;
life is snow burning in the sun.
—Nandai, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



veni, vidi, etc.
by Michael R. Burch

the last will and testament of a preemie, from 'Songs of the Antinatalist'

i came, i saw, i figured
it was better to be transfigured,
so rather than cross my Rubicon
i fled to the Great Beyond.
i bequeath my remains, so small,
to Brutus, et al.



Paradoxical Ode to Antinatalism
by Michael R. Burch

from 'Songs of the Antinatalist'

A stay on love
would end death's hateful sway,
someday.

A stay on love
would thus be love,
I say.

Be true to love
and thus end death's
fell sway!



Lighten your tread:
The ground beneath your feet is composed of the dead.

Walk slowly here and always take great pains
Not to trample some departed saint's remains.

And happiest here is the hermit with no hand
In making sons, who dies a childless man.

Abu al-Ala Al-Ma'arri (973-1057) , antinatalist Shyari
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



How happy the soul who speeds back to the Source,
but crowned with peace is the one who never came.
—a Sophoclean passage from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



It's a hundred times better not be born;
but if we cannot avoid the light,
the path of least harm is swiftly to return
to death's eternal night!
Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Not to have been born is best,
and blessed
beyond the ability of words to express.
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Never to be born may be the biggest boon of all.
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Oblivion: What a boon, to lie unbound by pain!
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The happiest life is one empty of thought.
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Consider no man happy till he lies dead, free of pain at last.
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

What is worse than death? When death is desired but denied.
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

When a man endures nothing but endless miseries, what is the use of hanging on day after day, edging closer and closer toward death? Anyone who warms his heart with the false glow of flickering hope is a wretch! The noble man should live with honor and die with honor. That's all that can be said. —Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Children anchor their mothers to life.
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

How terrible, to see the truth when the truth brings only pain to the seer!
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Wisdom outweighs all the world's wealth.
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Fortune never favors the faint-hearted.
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Wait for evening to appreciate the day's splendor.
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We need evening to appreciate the day's attractions.
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Evening helps us appreciate the day's attractions.
—Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

For the gods have decreed that unfortunate mortals must suffer, while they themselves are sorrowless.
—Homer (circa 800 BC) , Iliad 24.525-526, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

'It is best not to be born or, having been born, to pass on as swiftly as possible.'—attributed to Homer (circa 800 BC) , loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

There is nothing so pointless, so perfidious as human life! ... The ultimate bliss is not to be born; otherwise we should speedily slip back into the original Nothingness.—Seneca, On Consolation to Marcia, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Unsurprisingly, narrow minds have trouble grasping larger subjects.
-Michael R. Burch



On a Betrothed Girl
by Erinna
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I sing of Baucis the bride.
Observing her tear-stained crypt
say this to Death who dwells underground:
'Thou art envious, O Death! '

Her vivid monument tells passers-by
of the bitter misfortune of Baucis —
how her father-in-law burned the poor girl on a pyre
lit by bright torches meant to light her marriage train home.
While thou, O Hymenaeus, transformed her harmonious bridal song into a chorus of wailing dirges.

Hymen! O Hymenaeus!

Keywords/Tags: Habeas Corpus, birth, control, procreation, childbearing, child abuse, children, prognosis, suffering, pain, despair, death, climate change, extinction, antinatalist, antinatalism, contraception, contraceptives