Hyenas [English translation]

Once, if I remember well, my life was a feast where all hearts opened, where all wines flowed.

One evening, I sat Beauty upon my knees

- And I found her bitter

- And I insulted her

I armed myself against justice

I fled

O sorcerers, O misery, O hate, it is to you that my treasure was entrusted!

I managed to make all human hope disappear in my spirit

I did the deaf leap of the ferocious beast on every joy to strangle it

I beckoned executioners to bite into the butts of their rifles as I perish.

I sent for plagues to smother me with sand, with blood.

Misfortune was my god.

I lay down in the mud.

I dried myself in the air of murder.

And I played some good tricks while mad

And the springtime supplied me with the awful laugh of an idiot.

But, very recently, I was found on the point of making the last bum note[?]

I thought of searching for the key of the ancient feast, where I would perhaps capture my appetite again.

Charity is this key.

- This inspiration proves that I dreamed!

"You will remain a hyena, etc..." exclaims the demon who will crown me with such lovely poppies. "Win death with all your appetites, and your egoism and all the seven deadly sins."

Ah! I took it.

- But, dear Satan, I beseech you, a less irritated pupil! And awaiting some small cowardice late, you who loves the absence of descriptive and instructive faculties in the writer, I detach for you some hideous pages of my notebook of damnation.