They tried to bury us; they forgot that we were seeds

This saying is now thought of as a Mexican proverb, used a lot in recent civil uprisings and protests; it is a paraphrase of a rather self-aggrandising couplet by Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos, 1970s, talking of the literary community that criticised and ostracized him.

Text Authorship:

• from Volkslieder (Folksongs)  [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Janet Oates (b. 1970), "They tried to bury us", 2022 [ soprano, recorder or voice, basso continuo ], from Five Tree Proverbs, no. 2
      Score: Janet Oates [external link]  [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-08-23
Line count: 1
Word count: 11