The Universe got chaos on the rise. It cracks and trembles, I do not delude you. Devils decided to build Paradise, Their Paradise in Hell, their shiny future. A well-known devil by the name of “Dave,” A Heaven’s agent, passed upstairs the note: “All hell is breaking loose. I don’t feel safe. “Here devil knows what’s going on. I don’t!” He also added one specific line For Mr. Cupid, Chief of all Intelligence, That “Satan he suspects me all the time! “And I can never fully trust my agents.” Meanwhile Beelzebub himself in Hell Demanded a parade of all armed forces, He got up on the podium and yelled That Heaven is the path that he endorses! Poor devils howled, shouted “Hell, yes! “We will build Eden in our home Inferno! “We must increase production and progress “To five sinners per dayshift in one burner!” “Then off we go! I’ll lead you all myself!” “God help us! Charge!” - they all cried out in fever. And sinners trembled in the pits of Hell, And at the top of Heaven angels shivered. In panic, straight to Him the angels ran, The One with all the answers and solutions. But He responded: “I don’t give a damn! “I’ll have you executed for collusion!” He then called Satan “a retarded troll,” He told them to forget his childish rage, and That angels are all bastards, one and all, And Dave has long since been a double agent. “This isn’t Heaven! This is madhouse, yo! “I’m going down to Earth, at least they care! “To hell with you! I’m really gonna go! “Let them crucify me down there.” He left. God knows where is he now. But once church-goers spotted a stranger pauper. He drinks upon the church’s steps and shouts: “I am your Savior! Can you spare a quarter?” The end is woeful. Everybody cries. The fall of Troy’s comparatively pleasant. In Heaven now it’s Hell, not Paradise, But down below the devils built their Heaven.
© Vadim Astrakhan. Translation, 2019
© Vadim Astrakhan. Performance, 2019