Confession
I am just one of the epigones who
live and dwell in the house of language ole.
The experience had is mine however;
I’ll break out and I’ll destroy Thebes forever.
Though the old masters I do succeed, bloody
vengeance for their patrimony belongs to me.
I speak of vengeance, of my need to take it,
to avenge language on all the speakers fit.
Am an epigone, am ancestor-worthy.
And you’re the Thebans, deserving the fury!
Karl Kraus
Translated by Peter Winslow
Source text
Kraus, K. “Confession.” Die Fackel. Nos. 443-444 (1916): 28. Print.