FRAU ZITTEL:
Suddenly one day you discover your own children
are non-humans he said
we think we're raising human beings
and then they're just carnivorous cretins
hysterics megalomaniacs chaotics
PROFESSOR ROBERT:
I never contemplated suicide
your father toyed with the idea of it even as a child
I didn't even know what suicide was
when he was already thinking about it
the world today is all destroyed
and altogether unbearably ugly
go anywhere you like
the world today is just ugly
and meaninglessness through and through
everything ruined wherever you look
everything gone to the dogs wherever you look
one would rather not wake up any more
in the last fifty years the people in government
have destroyed everything
and it can never be put right
the architects have destroyed everything
with their stupidity
the intellectuals have destroyed everything
with their stupidity
the masses have destroyed everything
with their stupidity
political parties the church
have destroyed everything with their stupidity
which has always been base stupidity
this Austrian stupidity is utterly repulsive
Industry and the church are to blame
for Austria's misfortune
the church and industry have always been to blame
for Austria's misfortune
governments are nothing but puppets
of industry and the church
it's always been like that
and in Austria it's always been the worst
people have always run after stupidity
and trampled intelligence underfoot
Industry and clergy are behind
the Austrian sickness
Really I can understand your father very well
I'm surprised the entire Austrian people didn't commit suicide long ago
The Austrians were condemned to death long ago
they just don't know it yet
they haven't yet noticed
the judgement was passed long ago
the execution is just a matter of time
if you ask me it's imminent
The tragedy is not
that my brother is dead
but that we are left behind that's what's terrible
from Thomas Bernhard Heldenplatz