Prometheus

Cover your sky, Zeus, With cloudiness, And try out your strength, Like a boy beheading thistles, On oaks and mountain tops; You must leave standing My earth And hut not built by you, And my hearth Whose glow you envy. I know nothing poorer Under the sun than you, o gods! You sparely nurture Your majesty On sacrificial tribute And the breath of prayers, And would starve If children and beggars Were not hopeful fools. When I was a child And had reached my wit’s end, I turned my lost eye To the sun, as if above it Were an ear to hear my lament, A heart like mine To take pity on me in my straights. Who helped me Against the arrogant Titans? Who saved me from death, From slavery? Did you not attain it all yourself, Holy glowing heart, And young and innocent, betrayed, Radiated thanks for deliverance To the sleeper up above? I honour you? For what? Have you ever soothed The pain of the burdened? Have you ever dried The tears of the frightened? Have not almighty time And eternal fate, My lords and yours, Forged me into manhood? Did you imagine I would hate life, Flee into deserts Because not all My dreams blossomed Into fruition? Here I sit, make men In my image, A race that shall be like me, Suffer, weep, Take pleasure and enjoy, And ignore you, Like me.