All that in the neighb’ring countries was deformed and misbegotten,
All that’s stained with foul corruption’s mark by nature, all that’s rotten,
All these helots, mean and greedy, which the Phanar[1] here has sent,
Self-styled patriots, so-called brothers, on their selfish schemes intent,
Babblers, stutterers, and cretins, wry-mouthed wretches, now grown great
Are your masters,— yes, these prattlers are the pillars of the state.
You the heirs of Rome? You, eunuchs, of her fame are boasting when
All the world, with horror shrinking, is ashamed to call you men!
And this pestilence, these creatures with their nasty mouths proclaim
That they are the country’s saviours, and they dare, they have no shame,
All the glory of our nation with their filth but to besmear
And thy holy name pronouncing to disgrace it, country dear!
In the lupanars, in Paris, day and night you have been seen
With the most depraved of women and in revelry obscene,
You have lost your youth and fortune, gambling, drinking, wild and lewd,
How could Paris make you better, since in you was nothing good?
Wearing monocles like dandies, with a little walking cane,
You came back, your heads pomaded, in your brains did nought remain
But some waltz learnt in the ballrooms, nothing else was left behind:
And all prematurely withered, with an empty childish mind,
And a harlot’s dancing slippers, all the wealth you did acquire…
I admire you, proudest offspring of the Romans, I admire!
Now you look amazed and frightened to our cold and sceptic eyes,
And you wonder why no longer we can listen to your lies?
When we see that all these loafers, who with great words make such din
Are but chasing after money, cheaply, without work to win.
If these polished, empty phrases, all this idle talk, my brothers,
Cannot cheat us any longer, is it now the fault of others?
Too much did you this poor country with our foes to pieces tear,
- ↑ The Rumanian principalities, fallen under the Turkish yoke, were governed during the XVIII-th Century by Greek princes sent by the Turks from the Phanar of Constantinople. Many of these princes, with their followers, had devastated the country.
