back to Paul Claudel

“Tenebres” by Paul Claudel 🇫🇷 (6 Aug 186823 Feb 1955)
Translated from the French by & Anonymous
I’m here, the other is elsewhere, and the silence is terrible:
We are unhappy and we Satan valve in its screen.
I suffer, and the other suffers, and there is no way
Between her and me, the other me point voice or hand.
Nothing but the night is common and incommunicable
The night when there worketh and impractical terrible love.
I listen, and I am alone, and terror came over me.
I hear the resemblance of his voice and the sound of a scream.
I hear a little wind and my hair stand up on my head.
Save her from the danger of death and the mouth of the beast!
Here again the taste of death between my teeth,
The trench, the urge to vomit and turning.
I was alone in the press I have trodden grapes in my delirium,
That night when I walked from one wall to the other, laughing.
Whoever has eyes, eyes did he not see me?
Whoever has ears, does he not hear me without ears?
I know that where sin abounds, there Thy mercy abounds.
We must pray, because it’s time for Prince of the world.