That the country is not the foundation of the community

Now brotherhood has been so cut to shreds That in the stead of the community The Country has been given pride of place In men’s allegiance and constructive work;

The Country is the darling of their hearts, And wide humanity is whittled down Into dismembered tribes.

Men thought to find Paradise in that miserable abode Of ruin where they made the peoples dwell.

This tree has banished heaven from the world And borne for fruit the bitterness of war;

Humanity is but a legend, man Become a stranger to his fellow-man.

The spirit has departed from the flesh, Only the seven disjointed limbs remain; Vanished is humankind, there but abide The disunited nations.

Politics Dethroned religion, this tree first struck root Within a Western garden

and the tale Of Christianity was all rolled up, The radiance of the Church’s lantern dimmed;

Pope powerless and baffled, from his hand The counters scattered;

Jesus’ followers Spurning the Church; debased the coinage Of the True Cross’s Law.

When atheism Fist rent religion’s garment, there arrived That Satan’s messenger,

the Florentine Who worshipped falsehood, whose collyrium Shattered the sight of men.

He wrote a scroll For Princes, and so scattered in our clay The seed of conflict;

his fell genius Decamped to darkness, and his sword like pen Struck Truth asunder

Carving images Like Azar was his trade; his fertile mind Conceived a new design;

his novel faith Proclaimed the State the only worship; His thoughts the ignoble turned to praise-worthy.

So, when the feet of this adorable He kissed, the touchstone that he introduced To test the truth was Gain.

His doctrine caused Falsehood to flourish; plotting stratagems Became an art.

A sad and sorry end Attended the regime which he devised, That caltrop which he scattered on the road Of advancing days.

Dark night he wrapped About the peoples’ eyes; deception called, In his vocabulary, expediency.