Homo Bulla

勒瓦卢瓦之歌

！

晚星:

BALLAD OF LEVALLOIS

 

  —barracks for the unemployed in Levallois-Perret, 1935

 

O God, have mercy on Levallois,

Look under these chestnut trees poisoned with smoke,

Give a moment of joy to the weak and the drunk,

O God, have mercy on Levallois.

 

All day long they stole and cursed,

Now they lie in their bunks and lick their wounds,

And while the darkness thickens over Paris

They hide their faces in their thieving hands.

O God, have mercy on Levallois.

 

They followed your commandment every day:

They harvested wheat, tore coal from the earth.

And often they drenched themselves in their brothers’ blood

Murmuring the names of Jesus and Mary.

 

Their insane jabber welled from the taverns.

That was their song in your praise.

They perished in mines, in the snow, in the heat,

In mud and the depth of the seas.

 

It was they who lifted you above themselves,

Their hands sculpted your face.

So deign to look on your faithful priests,

Give them the joys of table and bed.

 

Take from them the stigmas of illness and sin.

Set them free. Lead them into Sodom.

Let them adorn their houses with garlands.

Let them learn how to live and die more lightly.

 

Darkness. Silence. A bridge hums in the distance.

The wind streams through Cain's trees.

On the void of the earth, on the human tribe

No mercy, no mercy on Levallois.

 

Wilno, 1936