On Mankind
Fall silent! Cease to sing your tale:
the world reveals its past –
of frozen winds and scalding flail
that humans’ hearts have cast –
showers of tears men’s sorrows cause to fly,
winds from the hearts of those who sigh.
Worthless are all things: virtue, sin, and brain:
All hope is vain.
You’ve often heard the tale: “The nation
had Founding Fathers brave,
but as they sinned, their own creation
went sinning to their grave…”
Those left alive with fear were filled:
“Give us the Law!” – But the Law had killed…
The virtuous fell, murderers ruled again:
All hope is vain.
And then the powerful heroes placed
the Law beneath their feet.
Man bent the iron, toiled and faced
it all – there’s no defeat.
The mighty soon to die began;
man, in frustration, turned on man…
And fame? A lightning flash in want’s dark reign:
All hope is vain.
Then a long age of peace arose,
men mightily increased;
perhaps for a plague the number grows
to make a larger feast:
man looks to Heaven with longing eyes,
but Earth his ownership denies…
Even for graves too hard is its domain:
All hope is vain.
How plentifully lush the Earth!
Made even richer by Man’s stroke;
yet everywhere there is still dearth,
slaves groan beneath the yoke.
Must it always be thus? If no,
why, for so long, has it been so?
Is it virtue or strength, we can’t obtain?
All hope is vain.
An ungodly contract there’s aglow
‘twixt reason and Evil will:
therefore your raging follies grow
in feverish wars to kill.
Satan and Reason the strife began:
whichever wins, the loser’s Man,
this God-faced beast, this lump of mud insane:
All hope is vain!
Man pains the Earth. * Beyond the spate
of years of war and peace,
the curses of fraternal hate
upon her brow increase.
And should we think he’ll learn in time,
he plots an even viler crime:
from dragon’s teeth will spring his budding grain:
All hope is vain! All hope is vain!
(Ez mindig furcsa.) (És azért magyarul sokkal jobb.) (A fordítók a tagben.)