Codex Gigas (Artist: Bang Yongguk)

Earth wants to bring an end to humanity, but humans are clueless.

You claim science has defeated prophecy, so why don’t you engage in critical self-reflection ?

Literature, art, and religion—for whom are they truly intended?

Not following the providence of nature,

This system dominates the mind.

Now, what is the meaning of that purity and forgiveness?

What is the meaning of that spotless peace?

That hypocrisy and broken promise, ruled by the panopticon—

Greed will return as red blood.

Destruction is the mother of creation.

Hatred is the father of love.

Hide your weak form.

Breathe as if you have become a transcendent being, breathe harder.

The codex gigas.

“You were born an angel”—it’s embarrassing.

The codex gigas.

“You were born a devil”—that’s exactly it.

Awaken to the voice of the wicked.

Take the fruit of good and evil that has blossomed, and carve out your sins, u-ah (u-ah).

It is never sacred—it kills your spirit and soul, h-hmm.

If it is filled with that dogmatism and arrogance, u-ah,

You foolish one, face the truth, open your eyes and ears, h-hmm.

Wake up, hmm.

Humans want to become gods, yet they are so weak.

They want to hide their true nature, killing the chosen life.

The standard of dignity, destruction, and slaughter—

It is never fair to God.

Philosophical thought and essence are assimilated, becoming disgustingly holy.

Slavery and discrimination, the cursed nature—

Who is this war truly for?

Glittering cities, foul odors blossoming—

Humans feel no sense of estrangement whatsoever.

Go down to the very bottom, the forgotten abyss (hey).

The true demons are you.

These shoddy things gather to form a colossal evil (how truly holy).

The true demons are you.

The true evil is you.

You, you.

The codex gigas.

“You were born an angel”—it’s embarrassing.

The codex gigas.

“You were born a devil”—that’s exactly it.

Awaken to the voice of the wicked.

Take the fruit of good and evil that has blossomed, and carve out your sins, u-ah (u-ah).

It is never sacred—

It kills your spirit and soul, h-hmm.

If it is filled with that dogmatism and arrogance, u-ah,

You foolish one, face the truth,

Open your eyes and ears, h-hmm.

Wake up, h-hmm, yeah yeah.

Translated using Google Gemini

The first time I heard this song, it was truly haunting. I think the music is carefully curated to match the vibe of the message with a bone-chilling, minimalistic instrumental with screams of what sound like a shrill cry breaking out from time to time. I think it is truly a masterpiece and quite in line with my view of the irony of humanity. Within human beings, there is so often this shallow sense of good and bad. If someone commits murder, they are bad. If someone is polite to everyone they meet, they are good. Though words like these are not explicitly spoken all the time, many of our actions and words betray this simplistic view of morality. In a sense, we believe we have the capacity to know and judge what is morally right and wrong, subjecting those around us to our standards, all while failing to apply the logic behind our standards to ourselves. One fascinating human behavioral pattern I’ve observed in my short years of living is: those of us who are so often desperate to be “good” are often the perpetrators of so much evil. This may be due to the fact that we are so scared of being “bad,” but that mindset is one supported by delusions. The truth is that under the right conditions, any and everyone has the ripe capacity to be “bad,” and let’s be real: we have all done and said questionable things that have hurt the people around us. In other words, you may not be a murderer in the eyes of the law, but you are at least a murderer in the sense that you have spoken words or have done something that has wounded another’s soul profoundly before. Ignoring one’s evil does not make one “good”; if anything, it creates the perfect conditions to perpetrate evil. Beginning to “wake up,” to view oneself in totality, is the beginning of truly embracing humanity to abandon humanity. That is, to become truly good, one’s propensity for evil must be acknowledged and accepted. No one can control something they are not conscious of, so please “wake up.” Turn on the lights, face yourself in the mirror, take a look at all your crookedness, your ghastliness, your scars, your own monstrosity. Own it—subdue it—and take one step closer to truly being “good”—to truly being human.