hands tied behind your back, / your back to the wall

from the poem "On Living" by Nazm Hikmet:

Living is no laughing matter:
	you must live with great seriousness
		like a squirrel, for example--
   I mean without looking for something beyond and above living,
		I mean living must be your whole occupation.
Living is no laughing matter:
	you must take it seriously,
	so much so and to such a degree
   that, for example, your hands tied behind your back,
                                            your back to the wall,
   or else in a laboratory
	in your white coat and safety glasses,
	you can die for people--
   even for people whose faces you’ve never seen,
   even though you know living
	is the most real, the most beautiful thing.
—Nazim Hikmet

Read the rest of the poem here:

Photo by Matthew Wiebe