Spleen [English translation]

When the low, heavy sky weighs like a lid

On the groaning spirit, victim of long ennui,

And from the all-encircling horizon

Spreads over us a day gloomier than the night;

When the earth is changed into a humid dungeon,charles

In which Hope like a bat

Goes beating the walls with her timid wings

And knocking her head against the rotten ceiling;

When the rain stretching out its endless train

Imitates the bars of a vast prison

And a silent horde of loathsome spiders

Comes to spin their webs in the depths of our brains,

All at once the bells leap with rage

And hurl a frightful roar at heaven,

Even as wandering spirits with no country

Burst into a stubborn, whimpering cry.

— And without drums or music, long hearses

Pass by slowly in my soul; Hope, vanquished,

Weeps, and atrocious, despotic Anguish

On my bowed skull plants her black flag.

• Artist:Peste Noire
• Album:La Sanie des siècles – Panégyrique de la dégénérescence