The Litanies of Satan by Charles Baudelaire

Lyrics

O you, the most knowing, and loveliest of Angels A god fate betrayed, deprived of praises O Satan, take pity on my long misery! O, Prince of exile to whom wrong has been done Who, vanquished, always recovers more strongly O Satan, take pity on my long misery! You who know everything, king of the underworld The familiar healer of human distress O Satan, take pity on my long misery! You who teach even lepers, accursed pariahs Through love itself the taste for Paradise O Satan, take pity on my long misery! O you who on Death, your ancient true lover Engendered Hope – that lunatic charmer! O Satan, take pity on my long misery! You who grant the condemned that calm, proud look That damns a whole people crowding the scaffold O Satan, take pity on my long misery! You who know in what corners of envious countries A jealous God hid those stones that are precious O Satan, take pity on my long misery! You whose clear eye knows the deep caches Where, buried, the race of metals slumbers O Satan, take pity on my long misery! You whose huge hands hide the precipice From the sleepwalker on the sky-scraper's cliff O Satan, take pity on my long misery! You who make magically supple the bones Of the drunkard, out late, who's trampled by horses O Satan, take pity on my long misery! You who taught us to mix saltpetre with sulphur To console the frail human being who suffers O Satan, take pity on my long misery! You who set your mark, o subtle accomplice On the forehead of Croesus, the vile and pitiless O Satan, take pity on my long misery! You who set in the hearts and eyes of young girls The cult of the wound, adoration of rags O Satan, take pity on my long misery! The exile's staff, the light of invention Confessor to those to be hanged, to conspirators O Satan, take pity on my long misery! Father, adopting those whom God the Father Drove in dark anger from the earthly paradise O Satan, take pity on my long misery!