Interesting: The text line is from a - probably the most - famous soldier poem of WWI: "In Flanders Fields", which seems a selection a little bit off for a WWII soldiers´cemetery (there must be WWII poems also, one should think?).
Also, the text is broken into lines differently from how it was presented in the original poem, which makes it´s sense harder to understand and deprives it of a little bit of it´s impact. This said, I have long ago chosen these two lines for my tombstone, as I find them very inspiring thinking about how generations pass on the values frome one to the next.
Let me post the original WWI soldier poem here, with your permisssion (in the published print version, the hand written version is different, as you can see in the Facsimile below: Line 1 ends with the word "grow"), highlighting the lines in question:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Curiously, these two lines also make the motto of one of Canada´s Ice Hockey clubs.
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Facsimile of the handwritten poem by John McCrae
