Solim to Usbek in Paris [1]

I have made up my mind : your woes are going to disappear, I am going to punish.

I feel already an inner joy ; my soul and yours are going to be calmed ; we are going to exterminate the crime, and innocence is going to pale.

Oh you who seem to be made [2] only to ignore all your senses, and to resent your very desires, eternal victims of shame and modesty, would I could bring you in droves into this unhappy seraglio, to see you appalled at all the blood I am going to spill !

The Isfahan seraglio this 8^th day of the moon of Rébiab I, 1720