Exalted Vice-Consul, deign
To grant your quivering louse
The stamp that means happiness!
Sublime spirit
In whose image the gods were created
Suppose your inscrutable thoughts
To be interrupted for one second!
Four times
I succeeded in reaching your presence.
A few of my words
Thought up in sleepless nights
I hope have come close to you.
Twice I have had my hair cut for your sake
Never
Did I go to you hatless, my shabby cap
I always hid from you.
You know, your few words
Are interpreted for weeks by trembling families
For sinister hints or else for happy omens:
Is that why they are so cruel?
The great setter of traps approaches.
There is a small door, leading
Out of the trap. You
Have the key.
Will you throw it in?
2
Never fear, little man behind the desk!
Your superiors
Won't begrudge you the stamp.
In months of interrogation
You probed the applicant.
Every hair on his tongue is known to you.
Not one letter of your rules
Did you overlook. No question with a catch in it
Did you forget, now put an end to this torment!
Just bang that little stamp on, your superiors
Won't eat you up for that!
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