libretto ii

The Emperor:

Don't they recall... does nothing come to mind?
Do they discern, do they even blink an eye?
Knowledge, enlightenment, and civilization
Had passed them by like birds for the south.
The townsmen and the hill folk
that cry for confederacy
Have chosen for their progeny
The serfdom of the tooth,
And the law of bones,
And the worship of the morass!
Alas, the empire
Is uncrowned
As the sinews lie slack,
Hung as they are like a side of pork,
Or afflicted with the Gnashing of Teeth!
"Life," say I,
"Cry instead for life!
Betroth Reason!
Understanding!"