Hell Pictures

Hell Pictures.Höllenbilder.

Spirits from a still deeper night
The inkwell has brought up,
When I stirred the dregs.
I would never have touched them
Had I known earlier
How great the dangers are
When one kleksographs with the ink’s dregs,
Above all at night;
Then often a cat appears,
Pulling a devil’s face;
It is Satan who teases us.
Often the black spirits cheat
The kleksographer by disguise;
They often change their shapes

To pass themselves off for others;
As in life once, the bright one,
So in the black clefts of hell
They are and remain the old
Fellows past mending.