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The Monster Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj

" IN place of the heart, a serpent ; Rage for the mind's command ; An eye aflame with wildness ; A weapon in the hand ; " A brow with midnight clouded ; On the lips a cynic smile That tells of a curse unmatchable Born of a sin most vile. " Of longing, or hope, or virtue, No vestige may there be ; You, even in vice inhuman What can you want of me ? " You in its maddest moment The Deepest Pit designed, Let loose to sow confusion In the order of mankind ; " Here Hatred found you crawling Like vermin, groveling, prone, Filled you with blood of others And poisoned all your own. " Your very thoughts are fiendish Smoke of the fires of Hell. Weird as you are, how is it I seem to know you well ? " Why with your wild delirium Do you infect my sleep ? Why with my daily footstep An equal measure keep ? " The monster mutely beckons me Back with his ghostly hand, And dreading his fearful answer I heed the grim command.

" Nay, softly," he says ; " I pray thee, Silence thy frightened moan, And wipe the sweat from thy forehead My kinsman thou, my own! " Look at me well, good cousin ; Such wert thou fashioned of ! Thou, too, wouldst me resemble Without that magic Love!" (Translated by Nikola Tesla and Robert Underwood Johnson) http://sites.google.com/site/projectgoethe/