Heaven, beg mercy for me! Â If there is
a God in you, a pathway through
you to this God - which I have not
discovered - then pray for me! Â For my
heart is dead, no longer is there prayer
on my lips; all strength is gone, and
hope is no more. Â Until when, how
much longer, until when?
You, executioner! Â Here's my neck - go
to it, slaughter me! Â Behead me like a
dog, yours is the almighty arm and the
axe, and the whole earth is my scaffold
- and we, we are the few! My blood is
fair game - strike the skull, and
murder's blood, the blood of nurslings
and old men, will spurt onto your
clothes and will never, never be wiped
off.
And if there is justice - let it show
itself at once! Â But if justice show itself
after I have been blotted out from
beneath the skies - let its throne be
hurled down forever! Â Let heaven rot
with eternal evil! Â And you, the arrogant,
go in this violence of yours, live by
your bloodshed and be cleansed by it.
And cursed be the man who says:
Avenge! Â No such revenge - revenge for
the blood of a little child - has yet been
devised by Satan. Â Let the blood pierce
through the abyss! Â Let the blood seep
down into the depths of darkness, and
eat away there, in the dark, and breach
all the rotting foundations of the earth.