Tête-d'Or. Paul Claudel

Fifth Watcher: A curse upon you yourself, old man! Be accursed, crowned carrion, lapdog, clown!

      Is it not you who have brought us to this pass?

      Curse you, and curse all men who have power in their hands,

      Who have power in their hands, O God, and do not know how to use it!

      Why do you come to break our sleep and keep our eyes from slumber?

      You curse me, do you, old phantom? And I throw back your curse in your teeth!

      A curse on your royal race, temporal King, on the office that you hold, on the system that permits your impotent sway!

      A curse on all my teachers, from the one who taught me to read to the one who turned me loose with a box on the ear, dazzled and full of words!

      For they took me when I was only a child and they gave me dirt to eat.

      A curse on my father and on my mother also!

      A curse on the food they gave me, and on their ignorance, and on the example they set me!