I stepped into an avalanche   It covered up my soul   When I am not this hunchback that you see   I sleep beneath the golden hill   You who wish to conquer pain   You must learn to serve me well      You strike my side by accident   As you go down to your goal   This cripple here that you clothe and feed   Is neither starved nor cold   He does not ask for your company   Not at the centre, the centre of the world      I who am on a pedestal   You did not raise me there   Your laws do not compel me now   To kneel grotesque and bare   For I myself am the pedestal   For this ugly hump at which you stare      You who wish to conquer pain   You must learn what makes me kind   The crumbs of love that you offer me   Are the crumbs I've left behind   Your pain is no credential here   It's just a shadow of my wound      I have begun to ask for you   I who have no greed   I have begun to long for you   I who have no need   You say you've gone away from me   But I can feel you when you breathe      Do not dress in those rags for me   I know you are not poor   And do not love me quite so fiercely now   When you know that you are not sure   It is your turn, my beloved one   It is your flesh that I wear