Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
The utterance is a despairing wish over the day of birth, asking for darkness and the shadow of death to defile it, for a cloud to settle and remain upon it, and for gloom to make it fearful. It operates as a death-dealing curse that calls staining darkness and an abiding cloud down upon a span of time. Even the exemplary model of patience reveals by it a heart profoundly unsettled under affliction. That same darkness marks a blood-stained season in which abrupt calamity sweeps thousands out of existence at once while daily murderous frenzy strikes down its victims.
The utterance is a despairing wish over the day of birth, asking for darkness and the shadow of death to defile it, for a cloud to settle and remain upon it, and for gloom to make it fearful. It operates as a death-dealing curse that calls staining darkness and an abiding cloud down upon a span of time. Even the exemplary model of patience reveals by it a heart profoundly unsettled under affliction. That same darkness marks a blood-stained season in which abrupt calamity sweeps thousands out of existence at once while daily murderous frenzy strikes down its victims.