Adam Mickiewicz
Conrad’s Song of Vengeance – From “Forefather’s Eve pt. III”

CONRAD
(sings)
My Song was once in cold demise, -
Yet bloodlust lured to living shore,
Its vicious spectre to arise:
And call for gore, for gore, for gore.
Yes! vengeance, vengeance! avenged we must be,
God grant it, or else God need not see!

The Song: I'll march to evening glum,
My kin, my brethren I must bite,
Each soul that feels my teeth this night,
Like me a spectre must become.
Yes? vengeance, vengeance! avenged we must be,
God grant it, or else God need not see!

Thus we shall drink oppressor’s blood,
His flesh with axes we shall rend:
His limbs nail down in hateful mud,
Ne’er may his spectre re-ascend.
His soul we'll follow down to hell,
And crush it with collective might,
Till life eternal flees its shell,
So long it suffers, we shall bite.
Yes! vengeance, vengeance! avenged we must be,
God grant it, or else God need not see!

 

(Translated by: Witold Wojtaszko)