memento mori

From birth, we are moving towards death, but what does this dying mean in a social dimension? Decay and decadence, comedy and intrigue, power and its seductive, fatal consequences line up for a dance of death which, however, celebrates life. When the most mighty and powerful in the world turn whole peoples into their plaything, when the spiral of decay can no longer be stopped, then sometime, all of a sudden, death will stand before us rubbing his hands. But no: he starts to dance, moves to the rhythm and plays once again in the vast, infernally hot dance of the sinners ...

When they rock together in the dance with the beloved,
They are like snakes tightly encircling him.

Paul Heyse

Gomorrah

Das Feuer schleicht in den Gassen
Mit leisem Raubtiertritt,
Die schönen Töchter, die blassen,
Vernehmen nicht seinen Schritt.

Sie ruh’n auf weichen Fellen,
Müd’ von Gelagen und Tanz,
Vom Trank aus verbot’nen Quellen,
Von wilder Opfer Glanz.

Sie träumen von dunklen Freuden,
Von heimlicher Harfen Klang,
Von königlichem Vergeuden,
Und lachendem Überschwang.

Sie träumen von Cherubsflügeln –
Da stoßen die Wächter ins Horn,
Rot über Straßen und Hügeln
Lodert Jehovas Zorn.
Maria Janitschek

(The fire creeps in the alleys, with the gentle step of a beast of prey, the beautiful daughters, the pale ones, do not hear his steps.
They rest on soft furs, tired from carousing and dancing, from drinking from forbidden springs, the shine of wild sacrifices.
They dream of dark pleasures, of the sound of secret harps and royal dissipation and laughing exuberance.
They dream of cherubs' wings - then the watchmen blow their horns, and Jehovah's scorn blazes red across the streets and hills.)