Lyric discussion by sndnofyesteryear 

Cover art for Baudelaire lyrics by ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

from a translation of "To the Reader" by Charles Baudelaire (from "The Flowers of Evil)

But here among the scorpions and the hounds, the jackals, apes and vultures, snakes and wolves, monsters that howl and growl and squeal and crawl, in all the squalid zoo of vices, one

is even uglier and fowler than the rest, although the least flamboyant of the lot, this beast would gladly undermine the earth and swallow all creation in a yawn;

I speak of Boredom with with ready tears dreams of hangings as it puffs its pipe. Reader, you know this squeamish monster well,

  • hypocrite reader, - my alias, - my twin!