“Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived! Let it be a black hole in space. May God above forget it ever happened. Erase it from the books! May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night. And the night of my conception—the devil take it! Rip the date off the calendar, delete it from the almanac. Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness— no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever! May those who are good at cursing curse that day. Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it. May its morning stars turn to black cinders, waiting for a daylight that never comes, never once seeing the first light of dawn. And why? Because it released me from my mother’s womb into a life with so much trouble.
Unlucky mother—that you had me as a son, given the unhappy job of indicting the whole country! I’ve never hurt or harmed a soul, and yet everyone is out to get me. But, God knows, I’ve done everything I could to help them, prayed for them and against their enemies. I’ve always been on their side, trying to stave off disaster. God knows how I’ve tried! * * *