Chapter 36 Tasso in Prison by Eugène Delacroix

Poets in rags, sick in prison, Kicking over a clump of manuscripts with convulsive feet, He was dizzy and with fearful eyes Scanning the stairs, distraught. Intoxicating laughter fills the cell made him grotesque and perverted, He doubts everything, every fear Ridiculous and hateful, lingering. This genius, locked in a dirty cell, These grimaces, these ghosts, these cries, A swarm of bees circled and entangled behind his head. The waking dreamer, afraid of his chamber, He's your symbol, you have nightmares Suffocated within the walls of reality. Translated by Hu Xiaoyue Tasso (1544-1595), an Italian poet, became insane due to excessive depression and frustration, and was imprisoned in a madhouse.