Elogy of our times

There's no overdoing
the importance of the world
(ours I mean)
probably the only one
where killing can be an art and where
art work is created to live
for the length of a morning,
even if one of milleniums or more.
No, there's no glorifying it enough.
Only now we must hurry because
the hour seems near
when to much will be inflated
according to a noted apologist,
the frog.

Eugenio Montale, in Italian Poetry: 1950 to 1990, Ridinger and Renello (eds.), Dante University Press, 1996.