Heinrich Heine: Belshazzar

It was going towards midnight and all of Babylon was asleep. Only high up in the King’s castle there was light and noise.

Up there, in the royal hall, Belshazzar had a dinner party. The knights sat in shiny  armour drinking heavily. They toasted to each other and sang to please the stubborn king.

The King’s face was glowing red, and alcohol made him bold. So his mood carried him off and he cursed God. And he swaggered and cursed to the roaring applause of his knights.

With a proud look he called his servant who ran and came back with utensils of gold that had been stolen from the temple of Jehovah. The king took a holy cup filled it to the rim and empties it and calls out:


Jehovah! I’ll forever laugh at you, for I am the king of Babylon.

But as soon as he had said that, the King felt secret anguish. The loud laughter in the hall  stopped at once and a deadly silence set in.


And look! look! on the white wall something like a human hand appeared and wrote and wrote on the white wall in letters of fire and disappeared.

The King sat there staring and trembling. The knights felt cold fear and did not say a word anymore.
.
The magicians came but  they did not know how to  read the flaming writing on the wall. However, that same night Belshazzar was murdered by his followers.
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There is a good literal translation and a music sheet plus some information on the origin of the legend at
http://www.bachlund.org/Belsazar.htm




Below is
the original German text parallel to my own simplified translation