| |
| THOU, to whom my name bears witness, | |
| Be not silent, I entreat Thee; | |
| Leave not hid mine ebbing life’s blood! | |
| High above in heaven’s regions, | |
| Far and wide in halls of learning, | 5 |
| And where people meet together, | |
| Be my sacrifices published! | |
| How my tender infants perished; | |
| How their tortures laid me prostrate, | |
| Learn to know their deeds of horror! | 10 |
| We were crushed and rent asunder, | |
| Until corpse by corpse lay buried. | |
* * * * * * When suffering under tryant’s torture, | |
| Our wives would practise priestly functions, | |
| And sacrifice their cherished offspring; | 15 |
| While on the mother’s knee they nestled, | |
| The woeful work was calmly finished; | |
| As if they went to sleep in quiet. | |
| No heed was given to the precept, | |
| “Slay not the young one with its mother”; | 20 |
| For now no sheep from folds were taken. | |
| Tied down like lambs prepared for slaughter, | |
| There perished fathers, sons, whole households; | |
| And God was hallowed in his glory. | |
| When they beheld the pictured idols, | 25 |
| They cried: Depart! let us be murdered! | |
| |
