Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday greeted the upcoming debut of the Beijing Olympic Games with a poem glorifying "the same dream, of glory, of harmony, of peace."
The poem reads:
Birds of all feathers come and sing together,
A hymn of hope in an Olympic nest.
Forget your borders, ignore your cages and fly free.
Reject your different nightmares and have one dream.
The same dream, of glory, of harmony, of peace.
An equal dream for poor and rich, black and white. An equal right to compete and champion.
Run and throw, shoot and swim and pin, row and hit.
You can be the best on our globe.
Win, don't kill; lose, don't hate; Hope, don't regret.
Go home with an olive branch in your lips: together in harmony.
Breathing fresh air and singing for the newly born in the cradles and the nests.
The president, who harbors a profound interest in poetry, is scheduled to fly to Beijing Wednesday night to join other heads of state at the opening ceremony of the Games on Friday.
He told Xinhua last month that he is looking forward to the Beijing Olympics, which marks "an international sporting event that is meant to promote fraternity and peace between peoples."
(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2008)