Mother, behold your sons who fought so long.
Weigh them not as one weighs a spirit,
But judge them as you would judge an outcast
Who steals his way home along forgotten paths.

Mother, behold your sons and their numberless ranks.
Judge them not by their misery alone.
May God place beside them a handful of earth
So lost to them, and that they loved so much.

Mother, behold your sons so lost to themselves.
Judge them not on a base intrique
But welcome them back like the Prodigal Son.
Let them return to outstretched arms.

French poet Charles Peguy quoted by Michel Houellebecq in his novel ‘Submission’