Lyrics - Heauton Timoroumenos (self Tormentor) by Galas Diamanda

by
Charles
Baudelaire
No rage, no rancor:
I shall beat youas butchers fell an ox,as
Moses smote the rock in
Horeb-
I shall make you weep,and by the waters of afflictionmy desert will be slaked.
My desire, that hope has made monstrous,will frolic in your tearsas a ship tosses on the ocean-in my besotted heartyour adorable sobs will echolike an ecstatic drum.
For
I - am
I not a dissonancein the divine accord,because of the greedy
Ironywhich infiltrates my soul?
I hear it in my voice - that shrillness,that poison in my blood!
I am the sinister glass in whichthe
Fury sees herself!
I am the knife and the wound it deals,
I am the slap and the cheek,
I am the wheel and the broken limbs,hangman and victim both!
I am the vampire at my own veins,one of the great lost hordedoomed for the rest of my time, and beyond,'to laugh - and smile no more'(
Taken from
Les
Fleurs du
Mal, translated by
Richard
Howard)

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