Sing, O Goddess, of the gift to blaspheme
and sacrilege, of the grim laughter through tears andanguish,
recite in glory the ridicule of mortals,
the iambic mockery, the poisonous shriek
Give the joke to drink at its birth and death
the mask, the vice, the sin
Describe, O Eternal, the Cyclop's laughter
the blood's gurgle
scatter the circle in a ring of lines
in secret and passion, the gunpowder, the cartridge
in strict and meet meter
in the word magically reversed,*
with eyes at the neck,
in an old pattern, with a new faith
- who first mentioned the Name of God
he would perish unless there is
a sign in time
unless there is faith beside fraud
path beside abyss
absence beside presence
starlit forever.