Bereczky Erzsébet (szerk.): Imre Madách: The Tragedy of Man. Essays about the ideas and the directing of the Drama (Budapest, 1985)

Imre Madách: The Tragedy of Man - full text of the drama - Translated by Joseph Grosz

Not merit them. But with this monument Which I create, I feel I’ve found the way Which leads me to renown and lasting fame. Nature, admiring its majestic art,

Will spread my fame throughout the coming ages. No storm or earthquake will destroy its base — Man has become more powerful than God.

LUCIFER

Are you happy. Sire, inside your mind? Put your hand on your heart!

ADAM

No! I am not!

I feel an endless emptiness in me.

But never mind! I did not yearn for joy, Only for fame—and that I have achieved. Don’t let my people guess my suffering,

For they would pity and not worship me.

LUCIFER

And if you detect in any future day That glory is a silly, playful thing?

ADAM

That cannot be! LUCIFER

ADAM

And if it is?

Then I

Would curse this world behind me when I die.

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