An eye for an eye

An eye for an eye

The ancient city of Jerusalem
weights on you,
Pontius Pilate.
You're ready to dash off to Rome,
dropping this lousy job
and taking your soldiers with you.
You've had enough of these faces,
of this foreign, insincere land.
A dull pain batters at your temple,
a new day of suffering begins.

(chorus : )
Blood for blood!
This is not man's will, but the will of the Gods
Death for death!
You must endure without a groan.
Here is your hell!
You know there's no going back.
Drink your poison!1
Drink, procurator Pontius Pilate.

A mourning haze hovers above Golgotha,
you feel the tragedy (coming),
you're not yourself.
Between soldiers angered by the cruel heat,
two thieves and the holy one
are awaiting your decision.
He's a lunatic, God knows that,
he's only guilty of being isolated.
But you whisper your sentence,
the King of Jews will be crucified, like a thief!

(chorus)

In a silvery2 dream
you could have got away and walked with him
the path of eternal stars.
Above an expanse of steep mountains
you would have kneeled
before him
not ashamed to talk nor cry.
You loved him and yet had him crucified...

You wanted to find peace
at the bottom of a lake,
Pontius Pilate.
You became your own judge,
but your death will not buy his life
off the eternal Forces of Evil.
The Devil remembers you,
during nights of suffering
he comes at you3
eager to wash away your disgrace,
but untill now, to no avail.

(chorus x2)

By the path of eternal stars,
above an expanse of steep mountains.

• 1. "яд - jad" (poison) and "ад - ad" (hell) are often invoked together to talk about misfortune
• 2. a reference to the moonlight, being the symbol of sanctity in Bulgakov's novel, by opposition of the evil sun (as shown in the second verse)
• 3. I assume this line is based on the saying "water returns to water". Here it means the Devil is drawn by the evil in Pilate