Tophet and Eden (Hell and Paradise)

Sixty years of my life had now passed, and the pains of mortal had come on me fast, when of a sudden a man full of life and deeds, of piety too he had sown the seeds, bade adieu to the world and its ways, he was junior to me in years and days, and as I dwelt on the sorrowful sight, I was seized with pain, horror and fright.

Then said I, woe to me, benighted fool! Be ashamed and confounded, thou wretched tool of transgression and sin, error and crime, sunk in the depths of the mire of time. Have not God and man by me been cursed, more than my forbears in iniquity nursed? Were I of a sudden to be called on high, borne on the shoulders to the grave near by, and my comrades would seek me in vain with a sigh, what provision have I made on the journey to start, when the desolate soul from the body shall part? How shall I then speak and with judgment cope, if for the mercy of Him who forgiveth I cannot hope? While with musings such as these I the world forgot, my heart within me was hot; with tears did the windows of my frame unfold, and as water poured out they rushed forth and rolled. Grievous and mournful did I feel at my state, thinking of my soul lost and my pitiful fate, since, in tribute to Desire, I killed myself in hate.