コモンウェルス

解説

付記

この共和国の議事堂の廊下を見よ。 群がるは飢えた怠惰な一団―― 書記、給仕、小使い、付添人。 悪党に任命され、民が賃金を払う連中だ。 猫すらすり抜けられぬ脛の藪。 彼らの顎の騒音に猫の悲鳴もかき消される。 書記も給仕も小使いも、すべて呪われよ！ 人生は傷と災厄の連続であれ！ シャツに無数のノミが棲みつき、 骨には痛みと病が陣取り、 肺は結核で満たされ、膀胱は石で固められ、 組織は菌とバチルスに蝕まれ、 腸は条虫に食い荒らされよ。 髪には取り出せぬトウモロコシの芯が絡まり、 突き刺さる苦痛が楽しみを台無しにせよ。 夢をかき乱せ、恐ろしい声を放つソファよ！ よろめく床、跳ねるマットレス、いびきをかく枕よ！ 強欲に生まれ、罪に育った輩ども！ 死神よ、その数を減らしてくれ！ ――私が口を利けなかった友のために ―― K.Q.

管理人コメント

Original

An administrative entity operated by an incalculable multitude of political parasites, logically active but fortuitously efficient.

Additional notes

This commonwealth's capitol's corridors view, So thronged with a hungry and indolent crew Of clerks, pages, porters and all attaches Whom rascals appoint and the populace pays That a cat cannot slip through the thicket of shins Nor hear its own shriek for the noise of their chins. On clerks and on pages, and porters, and all, Misfortune attend and disaster befall! May life be to them a succession of hurts; May fleas by the bushel inhabit their shirts; May aches and diseases encamp in their bones, Their lungs full of tubercles, bladders of stones; May microbes, bacilli, their tissues infest, And tapeworms securely their bowels digest; May corn-cobs be snared without hope in their hair, And frequent impalement their pleasure impair. Disturbed be their dreams by the awful discourse Of audible sofas sepulchrally hoarse, By chairs acrobatic and wavering floors— The mattress that kicks and the pillow that snores! Sons of cupidity, cradled in sin! Your criminal ranks may the death angel thin, Avenging the friend whom I couldn't work in. K.Q.