Once, if my memory serves me well, my life was a banquet where every heart revealed itself, where every wine flowed.
One evening I took Beauty in my arms-- and I thought her bitter-- and I insulted her.
I steeled myself against justice.
I fled. O witches, O misery, O hate, my treasure was left in your care...
I have withered within me all human hope. With the silent leap of a sullen beast, I have downed and strangled every joy.
I have called for executioners; I want to perish chewing on their gun butts. I have called for plagues, to suffocate in sand and blood. Unhappiness has been my god. I have lain down in the mud, and dried myself off in the crime-infested air. I have played the fool to the point of madness.
And springtime brought me the frightful laugh of an idiot.
Now recently, when I found myself ready to croak! I thought to seek the key to the banquet of old, where I might find an appetite again.
That key is Charity. (This idea proves I was dreaming!)
"You will stay a hyena, etc....," shouts the demon who once crowned me with such pretty poppies. "Seek death with all your desires, and all selfishness, and all the Seven Deadly Sins."
Ah, I've taken too much of that; still, dear Satan, don't look so annoyed, I beg you! And while waiting for a few belated cowardices, since you value in a writer all lack of descriptive or didactic flair, I pass you these few foul pages from the diary of a Damned Soul.
王以培譯《地獄壹季》
以往，如果我沒有記錯，我的生命曾是壹場盛宴，在那裏，所有的心靈全都敞開，所有的美酒紛紛溢出來。
壹天夜晚，我讓 “ 美 ” 坐在我的雙膝上。 —— 我感到她的苦澀。 —— 我汙辱了她。
我拿起武器反抗正義。
我逃離。噢，女巫，苦難，仇恨，我的珍寶托付給妳們!
我終於使人類的希望在我的精神中幻滅。我像猛獸壹樣不聲不響地在歡樂之上跳躍，為了掐住希望的咽喉。
我叫來劊子手，為了在臨死前咬住他們的槍托。我叫來災難，為了在沙土和鮮血中窒息。不幸曾是我的上帝。
我倒在淤泥裏。我在罪惡的空氣中把自己晾幹。我瘋狂地開玩笑。
春天帶給我白癡的獰笑。
可是近來，當我最後壹次 “ 走調 ” ，我夢想著追尋那古老盛宴的鑰匙，在那裏，我也許胃口大開。
仁慈就是這把鑰匙。 —— 這靈感證實了我的夢。
“ 妳仍將是壹個惡棍…… ” 魔王又大聲叫喊， —— 他給我戴上壹頂如此美麗的罌粟花冠。 “ 用妳所有的胃口、妳的私心和所有深重的罪孽，去贏得死亡。 ”
啊!我太富有了： —— 可是親愛的撒旦，我請求您不要怒目而視!我知道您是不喜歡作家描寫或是教訓人的；在幾份小小的怯懦產生之前，我這個下地獄的人從我的手記中為您撕下這可憎的幾頁。