Midnight Examination

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The clock chimes the midnight in,
And ironically gives us the charge
To remember the fleeting day,
What usage we made of our time:
- Today, that fateful day,
Friday the thirteenth, we have,
In spite of all that we know
Behaved like a heretic.

We have blasphemed Jesus, the most
Incontestable of all Gods!
Like a parasite at the feast
Of some monstrous profligate,
We have, to please the brute,
That worthy vassal of Hell,
Insulted what we love,
And flattered the one we scorn;

Vile torturer, we have afflicted
The weak, who are wrongly despised;
Have bowed to enormous Folly,
Folly with brow of a bull;
Made love to mindless Matter,
With pious devotion indeed,
And blessed the lurid glow
Of putrefaction's light;

Finally, trying to drown
In delirium, vertigo,
We have, proud priest of the Lyre,
Whose glory is to unfold
The transport of morbid things,
Eaten and drunk like a swine!...
- O quickly, blowout the lamp
And hide us deep in the dark!


Přeložil James McGowan