The barbarians are due here today.Why isn't anything happening in the senate?
Because the barbarians are coming today.Why did our emperor get up so early,
What laws can the senators make now?
Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.
Because the barbarians are coming todayWhy have our two consuls and praetors come out today
and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a scroll to give him,
replete with titles, with imposing names.
Because the barbarians are coming todayWhy don't our distinguished orators come forward as usual
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Because the barbarians are coming todayWhy this sudden restlessness, this confusion?
and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.
And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution.
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