CINNA: O Caesar,
CAESAR: Hence! wilt thou lift up Olympus?
DECIUS BRUTUS: Great Caesar,
CAESAR: Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?
CASCA: Speak, hands for me!
[CASCA first, then the other Conspirators and BRUTUS stab CAESAR]
CAESAR: Et Tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar! [Dies]
CINNA: Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets.

An extract from William Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar” (Act 3: Scene 1)

Caesar meets Brutus, again…

“Oh forgive me dear Caesar – for what I have done,
For the sin I have committed – that is second to none”

“Fear not my friend Brutus – let bygones be bygones,
We shall work in unity – to abscond from this abyss”

“How do we get out? Help Caesar – there’s no escape,
Darkness is all I see – no light nor any gape”

“One who kills the other – and bathes in his blood may escape,
Never will I do it Brutus – Till my last breath I scrape”

“Stupid you are Caesar! – Thank God I have my knife,
I will kill you and bathe in your blood – and return to my life”

“Humanity Brutus! Where is it? – selfish you have become,
Without morality without integrity – to the devil we shall succumb”

“Survival Caesar – for that you are too weak,
So long my friend! I wish you’d find – the humanity you seek”

(Brutus stabs Caesar, again…)

A poem by Pramod Dilshan

Title image: The painting La mort de Cèsar (The Death of Julius Caesar) by Vincenzo Camuccini
Image Courtesy: https://bit.ly/39cpBNE