Liber Liberi
vel
Lapidis Lazuli
vel
Lapidis Lazuli
Adumbratio Kabbalæ Ægyptiorum
sub figurâ VII
1.
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Into my loneliness comes—
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2.
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The sound of a flute in dim groves that haunt the uttermost hills.
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3.
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Even from the brave river they reach to the edge of the wilderness.
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4.
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And I behold Pan.
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5.
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The snows are eternal above, above—
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6.
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And their perfume smokes upward into the nostrils of the stars.
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7.
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But what have I to do with these?
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8.
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To me only the distant flute, the abiding vision of Pan.
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9.
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On all sides Pan to the eye, to the ear;
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10.
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The perfume of Pan pervading, the taste of him utterly filling my mouth, so that the tongue breaks forth into a weird and monstrous speech.
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11.
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The embrace of him intense on every centre of pain and pleasure.
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12.
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The sixth interior sense aflame with the inmost self of Him,
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13.
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Myself flung down the precipice of being
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14.
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Even to the abyss, annihilation.
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15.
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An end to loneliness, as to all.
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16.
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Pan! Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan!
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1.
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My God, how I love Thee!
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2.
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With the vehement appetite of a beast I hunt Thee through the Universe.
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3.
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Thou art standing as it were upon a pinnacle at the edge of some fortified city. I am a white bird, and perch upon Thee.
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4.
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Thou art My Lover: I see Thee as a nymph with her white limbs stretched by the spring.
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5.
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She lies upon the moss; there is none other but she:
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6.
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Art Thou not Pan?
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7.
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I am He. Speak not, O my God! Let the work be accomplished in silence.
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8.
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Let my cry of pain be crystallized into a little white fawn to run away into the forest!
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9.
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Thou art a centaur, O my God, from the violet-blossoms that crown Thee to the hoofs of the horse.
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10.
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Thou art harder than tempered steel; there is no diamond beside Thee.
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11.
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Did I not yield this body and soul?
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12.
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I woo thee with a dagger drawn across my throat.
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13.
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Let the spout of blood quench Thy blood-thirst, O my God!
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14.
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Thou art a little white rabbit in the burrow Night.
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15.
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I am greater than the fox and the hole.
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16.
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Give me Thy kisses, O Lord God!
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17.
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The lightning came and licked up the little flock of sheep.
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18.
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There is a tongue and a flame; I see that trident walking over the sea.
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19.
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A phœnix hath it for its head; below are two prongs. They spear the wicked.
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20.
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I will spear Thee, O Thou little grey god, unless Thou beware!
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21.
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From the grey to the gold; from the gold to that which is beyond the gold of Ophir.
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22.
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My God! but I love Thee!
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23.
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Why hast Thou whispered so ambiguous things? Wast Thou afraid, O goat-hoofed One, O horned One, O pillar of lightning?
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24.
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From the lightning fall pearls; from the pearls black specks of nothing.
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25.
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I based all on one, one on naught.
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26.
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Afloat in the æther, O my God, my God!
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27.
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O Thou great hooded sun of glory, cut off these eyelids!
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28.
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Nature shall die out; she hideth me, closing mine eyelids with fear, she hideth me from My destruction, O Thou open eye.
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29.
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O ever-weeping One!
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30.
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Not Isis my mother, nor Osiris my self; but the incestuous Horus given over to Typhon, so may I be!
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31.
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There thought; and thought is evil.
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32.
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Pan! Pan! Io Pan! it is enough.
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33.
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Fall not into death, O my soul! Think that death is the bed into which you are falling!
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34.
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O how I love Thee, O my God! Especially is there a vehement parallel light from infinity, vilely diffracted in the haze of this mind.
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35.
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I love Thee.
I love Thee.
I love Thee.
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36.
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Thou art a beautiful thing whiter than a woman in the column of this vibration.
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37.
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I shoot up vertically like an arrow, and become that Above.
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38.
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But it is death, and the flame of the pyre.
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39.
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Ascend in the flame of the pyre, O my soul! Thy God is like the cold emptiness of the utmost heaven, into which thou radiatest thy little light.
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40.
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When Thou shall know me, O empty God, my flame shall utterly expire in Thy great N. O. X.
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41.
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What shalt Thou be, my God, when I have ceased to love Thee?
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42.
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A worm, a nothing, a niddering knave!
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43.
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But Oh! I love Thee.
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44.
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I have thrown a million flowers from the basket of the Beyond at Thy feet, I have anointed Thee and Thy Staff with oil and blood and kisses.
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45.
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I have kindled Thy marble into life— ay! into death.
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46.
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I have been smitten with the reek of Thy mouth, that drinketh never wine but life.
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47.
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How the dew of the Universe whitens the lips!
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48.
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Ah! trickling flow of the stars of the mother Supernal, begone!
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49.
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I Am She that should come, the Virgin of all men.
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50.
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I am a boy before Thee, O Thou satyr God.
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51.
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Thou wilt inflict the punishment of pleasure— Now! Now! Now!
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52.
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Io Pan! Io Pan! I love Thee. I love Thee.
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53.
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O my God, spare me!
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54.
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Now!
It is done! Death.
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55.
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I cried aloud the word— and it was a mighty spell to bind the Invisible, an enchantment to unbind the bound; yea, to unbind the bound.
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1.
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O my God! use Thou me again, alway. For ever! For ever!
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2.
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That which came fire from Thee cometh water from me; let therefore Thy Spirit lay hold on me, so that my right hand loose the lightning.
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3.
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Travelling through space, I saw the onrush of two galaxies, butting each other and goring like bulls upon earth. I was afraid.
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4.
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Thus they ceased fight, and turned upon me, and I was sorely crushed and torn.
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5.
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I had rather have been trampled by the World-Elephant.
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6.
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O my God! Thou art my little pet tortoise!
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7.
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Yet Thou sustainest the World-Elephant.
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8.
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I creep under Thy carapace, like a lover into the bed of his beautiful; I creep in, and sit in Thine heart, as cubby and cosy as may be.
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9.
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Thou shelterest me, that I hear not the trumpeting of that World-Elephant.
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10.
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Thou art not worth an obol in the agora; yet Thou art not to be bought at the ransom of the whole Universe.
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11.
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Thou art like a beautiful Nubian slave leaning her naked purple against the green pillars of marble that are above the bath.
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12.
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Wine jets from her black nipples.
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13.
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I drank wine awhile agone in the house of Pertinax. The cup-boy favoured me, and gave me of the right sweet Chian.
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14.
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There was a Doric boy, skilled in feats of strength, an athlete. The full moon fled away angrily down the wrack.
Ah! but we laughed.
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15.
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I was pernicious drunk, O my God! Yet Pertinax brought me to the bridal.
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16.
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I had a crown of thorns for all my dower.
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17.
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Thou art like a goat’s horn from Astor, O Thou God of mine, gnarl’d and crook’d and devilish strong.
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18.
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Colder than all the ice of all the glaciers of the Naked Mountain was the wine it poured for me.
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19.
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A wild country and a waning moon.
Clouds scudding over the sky.
A circuit of pines, and of tall yews beyond. Thou in the midst!
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20.
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O all ye toads and cats, rejoice! Ye slimy things, come hither!
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21.
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Dance, dance to the Lord our God!
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22.
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He is he! He is he! He is he!
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23.
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Why should I go on?
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24.
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Why? Why? comes the sudden cackle of a million imps of hell.
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25.
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And the laughter runs.
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26.
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But sickens not the Universe; but shakes not the stars.
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27.
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God! how I love Thee!
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28.
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I am walking in an asylum; all the men and women about me are insane.
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29.
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Oh madness! madness! madness! desirable art thou!
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30.
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But I love Thee, O God!
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31.
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These men and women rave and howl; they froth out folly.
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32.
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I begin to be afraid. I have no check; I am alone. Alone. Alone.
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33.
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Think, O God, how I am happy in Thy love.
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34.
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O marble Pan! O false leering face! I love Thy dark kisses, bloody and stinking! O marble Pan! Thy kisses are like sunlight on the blue Ægean; their blood is the blood of the sunset over Athens; their stink is like a garden of Roses of Macedonia.
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35.
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I dreamt of sunset and roses and vines; Thou wast there, O my God, Thou didst habit Thyself as an Athenian courtesan, and I loved Thee.
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36.
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Thou art no dream, O Thou too beautiful alike for sleep and waking!
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37.
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I disperse the insane folk of the earth; I walk alone with my little puppets in the garden.
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38.
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I am Gargantuan great; yon galaxy is but the smoke-ring of mine incense.
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39.
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Burn Thou strange herbs, O God!
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40.
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Brew me a magic liquor, boys, with your glances!
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41.
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The very soul is drunken.
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42.
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Thou art drunken, O my God, upon my kisses.
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43.
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The Universe reels; Thou hast looked upon it.
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44.
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Twice, and all is done.
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45.
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Come, O my God, and let us embrace!
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46.
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Lazily, hungrily, ardently, patiently; so will I work.
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47.
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There shall be an End.
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48.
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O God! O God!
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49.
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I am a fool to love Thee; Thou art cruel, Thou withholdest Thyself.
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50.
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Come to me now! I love Thee! I love Thee!
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51.
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O my darling, my darling— Kiss me! Kiss me! Ah! but again.
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52.
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Sleep, take me! Death, take me! This life is too full; it pains, it slays, it suffices.
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53.
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Let me go back into the world; yea, back into the world.
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1.
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I was the priest of Ammon-Ra in the temple of Ammon-Ra at Thebai.
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2.
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But Bacchus came singing with his troops of vine-clad girls, of girls in dark mantles; and Bacchus in the midst like a fawn!
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3.
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God! how I ran out in my rage and scattered the chorus!
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4.
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But in my temple stood Bacchus as the priest of Ammon-Ra.
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5.
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Therefore I went wildly with the girls into Abyssinia; and there we abode and rejoiced.
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6.
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Exceedingly; yea, in good sooth!
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7.
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I will eat the ripe and the unripe fruit for the glory of Bacchus.
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8.
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Terraces of ilex, and tiers of onyx and opal and sardonyx leading up to the cool green porch of malachite.
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9.
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Within is a crystal shell, shaped like an oyster— O glory of Priapus! O beatitude of the Great Goddess!
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10.
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Therein is a pearl.
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11.
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O Pearl! thou hast come from the majesty of dread Ammon-Ra.
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12.
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Then I the priest beheld a steady glitter in the heart of the pearl.
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13.
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So bright we could not look! But behold! a blood-red rose upon a rood of glowing gold!
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14.
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So I adored the God. Bacchus! thou art the lover of my God!
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15.
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I who was priest of Ammon-Ra, who saw the Nile flow by for many moons, for many, many moons, am the young fawn of the grey land.
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16.
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I will set up my dance in your conventicles, and my secret loves shall be sweet among you.
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17.
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Thou shalt have a lover among the lords of the grey land.
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18.
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This shall he bring unto thee, without which all is in vain; a man’s life spilt for thy love upon Mine Altars.
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19.
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Amen.
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20.
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Let it be soon, O God, my God! I ache for Thee, I wander very lonely among the mad folk, in the grey land of desolation.
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21.
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Thou shalt set up the abominable lonely Thing of wickedness. Oh joy! to lay that corner-stone!
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22.
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It shall stand erect upon the high mountain; only my God shall commune with it.
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23.
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I will build it of a single ruby; it shall be seen from afar off.
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24.
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Come! let us irritate the vessels of the earth: they shall distil strange wine.
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25.
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It grows under my hand: it shall cover the whole heaven.
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26.
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Thou art behind me: I scream with a mad joy.
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27.
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Then said Ithuriel the strong; let Us also worship this invisible marvel!
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28.
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So did they, and the archangels swept over the heaven.
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29.
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Strange and mystic, like a yellow priest invoking mighty flights of great grey birds from the North, so do I stand and invoke Thee!
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30.
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Let them obscure not the sun with their wings and their clamour!
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31.
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Take away form and its following!
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32.
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I am still.
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33.
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Thou art like an osprey among the rice, I am the great red pelican in the sunset waters.
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34.
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I am like a black eunuch; and Thou art the scimitar. I smite off the head of the light one, the breaker of bread and salt.
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35.
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Yea! I smite— and the blood makes as it were a sunset on the lapis lazuli of the King’s Bedchamber.
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36.
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I smite. The whole world is broken up into a mighty wind, and a voice cries aloud in a tongue that men cannot speak.
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37.
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I know that awful sound of primal joy; let us follow on the wings of the gale even unto the holy house of Hathor; let us offer the five jewels of the cow upon her altar!
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38.
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Again the inhuman voice!
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39.
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I rear my Titan bulk into the teeth of the gale, and I smite and prevail, and swing me out over the sea.
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40.
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There is a strange pale God, a god of pain and deadly wickedness.
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41.
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My own soul bites into itself, like a scorpion ringed with fire.
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42.
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That pallid God with face averted, that God of subtlety and laughter, that young Doric God, him will I serve.
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43.
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For the end thereof is torment unspeakable.
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44.
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Better the loneliness of the great grey sea!
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45.
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But ill befall the folk of the grey land, my God!
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46.
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Let me smother them with my roses!
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47.
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Oh Thou delicious God, smile sinister!
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48.
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I pluck Thee, O my God, like a purple plum upon a sunny tree. How Thou dost melt in my mouth, Thou consecrated sugar of the Stars!
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49.
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The world is all grey before mine eyes; it is like an old worn wine-skin.
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50.
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All the wine of it is on these lips.
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51.
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Thou hast begotten me upon a marble Statue, O my God!
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52.
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The body is icy cold with the coldness of a million moons; it is harder than the adamant of eternity. How shall I come forth into the light?
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53.
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Thou art He, O God! O my darling! my child! my plaything! Thou art like a cluster of maidens, like a multitude of swans upon the lake.
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54.
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I feel the essence of softness.
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55.
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I am hard and strong and male; but come Thou! I shall be soft and weak and feminine.
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56.
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Thou shalt crush me in the wine-press of Thy love. My blood shall stain Thy fiery feet with litanies of Love in Anguish.
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57.
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There shall be a new flower in the fields, a new vintage in the vineyards.
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58.
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The bees shall gather a new honey; the poets shall sing a new song.
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59.
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I shall gain the Pain of the Goat for my prize; and the God that sitteth upon the shoulders of Time shall drowse.
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60.
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Then shall all this which is written be accomplished: yea, it shall be accomplished.
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1.
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I am like a maiden bathing in a clear pool of fresh water.
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2.
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O my God! I see Thee dark and desirable, rising through the water as a golden smoke.
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3.
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Thou art altogether golden, the hair and the eyebrows and the brilliant face; even into the finger-tips and toe-tips Thou art one rosy dream of gold.
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4.
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Deep into Thine eyes that are golden my soul leaps, like an archangel menacing the sun.
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5.
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My sword passes through and through Thee; crystalline moons ooze out of Thy beautiful body that is hidden behind the ovals of Thine eyes.
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6.
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Deeper, ever deeper. I fall, even as the whole Universe falls down the abyss of Years.
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7.
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For Eternity calls; the Overworld calls; the world of the Word is awaiting us.
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8.
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Be done with speech, O God! Fasten the fangs of the hound Eternity in this my throat!
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9.
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I am like a wounded bird flapping in circles.
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10.
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Who knows where I shall fall?
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11.
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O blesséd One! O God! O my devourer!
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12.
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Let me fall, fall down, fall away, afar, alone!
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13.
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Let me fall!
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14.
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Nor is there any rest, Sweet Heart, save in the cradle of royal Bacchus, the thigh of the most Holy One.
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15.
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There rest, under the canopy of night.
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16.
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Uranus chid Eros; Marsyas chid Olympas; I chid my beautiful lover with his sunray mane; shall I not sing?
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17.
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Shall not mine incantations bring around me the wonderful company of the wood-gods, their bodies glistening with the ointment of moonlight and honey and myrrh?
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18.
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Worshipful are ye, O my lovers; let us forward to the dimmest hollow!
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19.
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There we will feast upon mandrake and upon moly!
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20.
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There the lovely One shall spread us His holy banquet. In the brown cakes of corn we shall taste the food of the world, and be strong.
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21.
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In the ruddy and awful cup of death we shall drink the blood of the world, and be drunken!
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22.
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Ohé! the song to Iao, the song to Iao!
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23.
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Come, let us sing to thee, Iacchus invisible, Iacchus triumphant, Iacchus indicible!
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24.
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Iacchus, O Iacchus, O Iacchus, be near us!
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25.
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Then was the countenance of all time darkened, and the true light shone forth.
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26.
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There was also a certain cry in an unknown tongue, whose stridency troubled the still waters of my soul, so that my mind and my body were healed of their disease, self-knowledge.
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27.
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Yea, an angel troubled the waters.
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28.
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This was the cry of Him: IIIOOShBTh-IO-IIIIAMAMThIBI-II.
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29.
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Nor did I sing this for a thousand times a night for a thousand nights before Thou camest, O my flaming God, and pierced me with Thy spear. Thy scarlet robe unfolded the whole heavens, so that the Gods said: All is burning: it is the end.
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30.
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Also Thou didst set Thy lips to the wound and suck out a million eggs. And Thy mother sat upon them, and lo! stars and stars and ultimate Things whereof stars are the atoms.
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31.
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Then I perceived Thee, O my God, sitting like a white cat upon the trellis-work of the arbour; and the hum of the spinning worlds was but Thy pleasure.
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32.
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O white cat, the sparks fly from Thy fur! Thou dost crackle with splitting the worlds.
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33.
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I have seen more of Thee in the white cat than I saw in the Vision of Æons.
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34.
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In the boat of Ra did I travel, but I never found upon the visible Universe any being like unto Thee!
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35.
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Thou wast like a winged white horse, and I raced Thee through eternity against the Lord of the Gods.
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36.
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So still we race!
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37.
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Thou wast like a flake of snow falling in the pine-clad woods.
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38.
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In a moment Thou wast lost in a wilderness of the like and the unlike.
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39.
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But I beheld the beautiful God at the back of the blizzard— and Thou wast He!
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40.
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Also I read in a great Book.
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41.
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On ancient skin was written in letters of gold: Verbum fit Verbum.
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42.
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Also Vitriol and the hierophant’s name
V.V.V.V.V.
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43.
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All this wheeled in fire, in star-fire, rare and far and utterly lonely— even as Thou and I, O desolate soul my God!
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44.
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Yea, and the writing
This is the voice which shook the earth.
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45.
|
Eight times he cried aloud, and by eight and by eight shall I count Thy favours, Oh Thou Elevenfold God 418!
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46.
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Yea, and by many more; by the ten in the twenty-two directions; even as the perpendicular of the Pyramid— so shall Thy favours be.
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47.
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If I number them, they are One.
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48.
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Excellent is Thy love, Oh Lord! Thou art revealed by the darkness, and he who gropeth in the horror of the groves shall haply catch Thee, even as a snake that seizeth on a little singing-bird.
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49.
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I have caught Thee, O my soft thrush; I am like a hawk of mother-of-emerald; I catch Thee by instinct, though my eyes fail from Thy glory.
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50.
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Yet they are but foolish folk yonder. I see them on the yellow sand, all clad in Tyrian purple.
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51.
|
They draw their shining God unto the land in nets; they build a fire to the Lord of Fire, and cry unhallowed words, even the dreadful curse Amri maratza, maratza, atman deona lastadza maratza maritza— marán!
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52.
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Then do they cook the shining god, and gulp him whole.
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53.
|
These are evil folk, O beautiful boy! let us pass on to the Otherworld.
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54.
|
Let us make ourselves into a pleasant bait, into a seductive shape!
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55.
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I will be like a splendid naked woman with ivory breasts and golden nipples; my whole body shall be like the milk of the stars. I will be lustrous and Greek, a courtesan of Delos, of the unstable Isle.
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56.
|
Thou shalt be like a little red worm on a hook.
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57.
|
But thou and I will catch our fish alike.
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58.
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Then wilt thou be a shining fish with golden back and silver belly: I will be like a violent beautiful man, stronger than two score bulls, a man of the West bearing a great sack of precious jewels upon a staff that is greater than the axis of the all.
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59.
|
And the fish shall be sacrificed to Thee and the strong man crucified for Me, and Thou and I will kiss, and atone for the wrong of the Beginning; yea, for the wrong of the beginning.
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1.
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O my beautiful God! I swim in Thy heart like a trout in the mountain torrent.
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2.
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I leap from pool to pool in my joy; I am goodly with brown and gold and silver.
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3.
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Why, I am lovelier than the russet autumn woods at the first snowfall.
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4.
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And the crystal cave of my thought is lovelier than I.
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5.
|
Only one fish-hook can draw me out; it is a woman kneeling by the bank of the stream. It is she that pours the bright dew over herself, and into the sand so that the river gushes forth.
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6.
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There is a bird on yonder myrtle; only the song of that bird can draw me out of the pool of Thy heart, O my God!
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7.
|
Who is this Neapolitan boy that laughs in his happiness? His lover is the mighty crater of the Mountain of Fire. I saw his charred limbs borne down the slopes in a stealthy tongue of liquid stone.
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8.
|
And Oh! the chirp of the cicada!
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9.
|
I remember the days when I was cacique in Mexico.
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10.
|
O my God, wast Thou then as now my beautiful lover?
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11.
|
Was my boyhood then as now Thy toy, Thy joy?
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12.
|
Verily, I remember those iron days.
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13.
|
I remember how we drenched the bitter lakes with our torrent of gold; how we sank the treasurable image in the crater of Citlaltepetl.
|
14.
|
How the good flame lifted us even unto the lowlands, setting us down in the impenetrable forest.
|
15.
|
Yea, Thou wast a strange scarlet bird with a bill of gold. I was Thy mate in the forests of the lowland; and ever we heard from afar the shrill chant of mutilated priests and the insane clamour of the Sacrifice of Maidens.
|
16.
|
There was a weird winged God that told us of his wisdom.
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17.
|
We attained to be starry grains of gold dust in the sands of a slow river.
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18.
|
Yea, and that river was the river of space and time also.
|
19.
|
We parted thence; ever to the smaller, ever to the greater, until now, O sweet God, we are ourselves, the same.
|
20.
|
O God of mine, Thou art like a little white goat with lightning in his horns!
|
21.
|
I love Thee, I love Thee.
|
22.
|
Every breath, every word, every thought, every deed is an act of love with Thee.
|
23.
|
The beat of my heart is the pendulum of love.
|
24.
|
The songs of me are the soft sighs:
|
25.
|
The thoughts of me are very rapture:
|
26.
|
And my deeds are the myriads of Thy children, the stars and the atoms.
|
27.
|
Let there be nothing!
|
28.
|
Let all things drop into this ocean of love!
|
29.
|
Be this devotion a potent spell to exorcise the demons of the Five!
|
30.
|
Ah God, all is gone! Thou dost consummate Thy rapture. Falútli! Falútli!
|
31.
|
There is a solemnity of the silence. There is no more voice at all.
|
32.
|
So shall it be unto the end. We who were dust shall never fall away into the dust.
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33.
|
So shall it be.
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34.
|
Then, O my God, the breath of the Garden of Spices. All these have a savour averse.
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35.
|
The cone is cut with an infinite ray; the curve of hyperbolic life springs into being.
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36.
|
Farther and farther we float; yet we are still. It is the chain of systems that is falling away from us.
|
37.
|
First falls the silly world; the world of the old grey land.
|
38.
|
Falls it unthinkably far, with its sorrowful bearded face presiding over it; it fades to silence and woe.
|
39.
|
We to silence and bliss, and the face is the laughing face of Eros.
|
40.
|
Smiling we greet him with the secret signs.
|
41.
|
He leads us into the Inverted Palace.
|
42.
|
There is the Heart of Blood, a pyramid reaching its apex down beyond the Wrong of the Beginning.
|
43.
|
Bury me unto Thy Glory, O beloved, O princely lover of this harlot maiden, within the Secretest Chamber of the Palace!
|
44.
|
It is done quickly; yea, the seal is set upon the vault.
|
45.
|
There is one that shall avail to open it.
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46.
|
Nor by memory, nor by imagination, nor by prayer, nor by fasting, nor by scourging, nor by drugs, nor by ritual, nor by meditation; only by passive love shall he avail.
|
47.
|
He shall await the sword of the Beloved and bare his throat for the stroke.
|
48.
|
Then shall his blood leap out and write me runes in the sky; yea, write me runes in the sky.
|
1.
|
Thou wast a priestess, O my God, among the Druids; and we knew the powers of the oak.
|
2.
|
We made us a temple of stones in the shape of the Universe, even as thou didst wear openly and I concealed.
|
3.
|
There we performed many wonderful things by midnight.
|
4.
|
By the waning moon did we work.
|
5.
|
Over the plain came the atrocious cry of wolves.
|
6.
|
We answered; we hunted with the pack.
|
7.
|
We came even unto the new Chapel and Thou didst bear away the Holy Graal beneath Thy Druid vestments.
|
8.
|
Secretly and by stealth did we drink of the informing sacrament.
|
9.
|
Then a terrible disease seized upon the folk of the grey land; and we rejoiced.
|
10.
|
O my God, disguise Thy glory!
|
11.
|
Come as a thief, and let us steal away the Sacraments!
|
12.
|
In our groves, in our cloistral cells, in our honeycomb of happiness, let us drink, let us drink!
|
13.
|
It is the wine that tinges everything with the true tincture of infallible gold.
|
14.
|
There are deep secrets in these songs. It is not enough to hear the bird; to enjoy song he must be the bird.
|
15.
|
I am the bird, and Thou art my song, O my glorious galloping God!
|
16.
|
Thou reinest in the stars; thou drivest the constellations seven abreast through the circus of Nothingness.
|
17.
|
Thou Gladiator God!
|
18.
|
I play upon mine harp; Thou fightest the beasts and the flames.
|
19.
|
Thou takest Thy joy in the music, and I in the fighting.
|
20.
|
Thou and I are beloved of the Emperor.
|
21.
|
See! he has summoned us to the Imperial dais.
The night falls; it is a great orgy of worship and bliss.
|
22.
|
The night falls like a spangled cloak from the shoulders of a prince upon a slave.
|
23.
|
He rises a free man!
|
24.
|
Cast thou, O prophet, the cloak upon these slaves!
|
25.
|
A great night, and scarce fires therein; but freedom for the slave that its glory shall encompass.
|
26.
|
So also I went down into the great sad city.
|
27.
|
There dead Messalina bartered her crown for poison from the dead Locusta; there stood Caligula, and smote the seas of forgetfulness.
|
28.
|
Who wast Thou, O Cæsar, that Thou knewest God in an horse?
|
29.
|
For lo! we beheld the White Horse of the Saxon engraven upon the earth; and we beheld the Horses of the Sea that flame about the old grey land, and the foam from their nostrils enlightens us!
|
30.
|
Ah! but I love thee, God!
|
31.
|
Thou art like a moon upon the ice-world.
|
32.
|
Thou art like the dawn of the utmost snows upon the burnt-up flats of the tiger’s land.
|
33.
|
By silence and by speech do I worship Thee.
|
34.
|
But all is in vain.
|
35.
|
Only Thy silence and Thy speech that worship me avail.
|
36.
|
Wail, O ye folk of the grey land, for we have drunk your wine, and left ye but the bitter dregs.
|
37.
|
Yet from these we will distil ye a liquor beyond the nectar of the Gods.
|
38.
|
There is value in our tincture for a world of Spice and gold.
|
39.
|
For our red powder of projection is beyond all possibilities.
|
40.
|
There are few men; there are enough.
|
41.
|
We shall be full of cup-bearers, and the wine is not stinted.
|
42.
|
O dear my God! what a feast Thou hast provided.
|
43.
|
Behold the lights and the flowers and the maidens!
|
44.
|
Taste of the wines and the cates and the splendid meats!
|
45.
|
Breathe in the perfumes and the clouds of little gods like wood-nymphs that inhabit the nostrils!
|
46.
|
Feel with your whole body the glorious smoothness of the marble coolth and the generous warmth of the sun and the slaves!
|
47.
|
Let the Invisible inform all the devouring Light of its disruptive vigour!
|
48.
|
Yea! all the world is split apart, as an old grey tree by the lightning!
|
49.
|
Come, O ye gods, and let us feast.
|
50.
|
Thou, O my darling, O my ceaseless Sparrow-God, my delight, my desire, my deceiver, come Thou and chirp at my right hand!
|
51.
|
This was the tale of the memory of Al A’in the priest; yea, of Al A’in the priest.
|
1.
|
By the burning of the incense was the Word revealed, and by the distant drug.
|
2.
|
O meal and honey and oil! O beautiful flag of the moon, that she hangs out in the centre of bliss!
|
3.
|
These loosen the swathings of the corpse; these unbind the feet of Osiris, so that the flaming God may rage through the firmament with his fantastic spear.
|
4.
|
But of pure black marble is the sorry statue, and the changeless pain of the eyes is bitter to the blind.
|
5.
|
We understand the rapture of that shaken marble, torn by the throes of the crowned child, the golden rod of the golden God.
|
6.
|
We know why all is hidden in the stone, within the coffin, within the mighty sepulchre, and we too answer Olalám! Imál! Tutúlu! as it is written in the ancient book.
|
7.
|
Three words of that book are as life to a new æon; no god has read the whole.
|
8.
|
But thou and I, O God, have written it page by page.
|
9.
|
Ours is the elevenfold reading of the Elevenfold word.
|
10.
|
These seven letters together make seven diverse words; each word is divine, and seven sentences are hidden therein.
|
11.
|
Thou art the Word, O my darling, my lord, my master!
|
12.
|
O come to me, mix the fire and the water, all shall dissolve.
|
13.
|
I await Thee in sleeping, in waking. I invoke Thee no more; for Thou art in me, O Thou who hast made me a beautiful instrument tuned to Thy rapture.
|
14.
|
Yet art Thou ever apart, even as I.
|
15.
|
I remember a certain holy day in the dusk of the year, in the dusk of the Equinox of Osiris, when first I beheld Thee visibly; when first the dreadful issue was fought out; when the Ibis-headed One charmed away the strife.
|
16.
|
I remember Thy first kiss, even as a maiden should. Nor in the dark byways was there another: Thy kisses abide.
|
17.
|
There is none other beside Thee in the whole Universe of Love.
|
18.
|
My God, I love Thee, O Thou goat with gilded horns!
|
19.
|
Thou beautiful bull of Apis! Thou beautiful serpent of Apep! Thou beautiful child of the Pregnant Goddess!
|
20.
|
Thou hast stirred in Thy sleep, O ancient sorrow of years! Thou hast raised Thine head to strike, and all is dissolved into the Abyss of Glory.
|
21.
|
An end to the letters of the words! An end to the sevenfold speech.
|
22.
|
Resolve me the wonder of it all into the figure of a gaunt swift camel striding over the sand.
|
23.
|
Lonely is he, and abominable; yet hath he gained the crown.
|
24.
|
Oh rejoice! rejoice!
|
25.
|
My God! O my God! I am but a speck in the star-dust of ages; I am the Master of the Secret of Things.
|
26.
|
I am the Revealer and the Preparer. Mine is the Sword— and the Mitre and the Wingèd Wand!
|
27.
|
I am the Initiator and the Destroyer. Mine is the Globe— and the Bennu Bird and the Lotus of Isis my daughter!
|
28.
|
I am the One beyond these all; and I bear the symbols of the mighty darkness.
|
29.
|
There shall be a sigil as of a vast black brooding ocean of death and the central blaze of darkness, radiating its night upon all.
|
30.
|
It shall swallow up that lesser darkness.
|
31.
|
But in that profound who shall answer: What is?
|
32.
|
Not I.
|
33.
|
Not Thou, O God!
|
34.
|
Come, let us no more reason together; let us enjoy! Let us be ourselves, silent, unique, apart.
|
35.
|
O lonely woods of the world! In what recesses will ye hide our love?
|
36.
|
The forest of the spears of the Most High is called Night, and Hades, and the Day of Wrath; but I am His captain, and I bear His cup.
|
37.
|
Fear me not with my spearmen! They shall slay the demons with their petty prongs. Ye shall be free.
|
38.
|
Ah, slaves! ye will not— ye know not how to will.
|
39.
|
Yet the music of my spears shall be a song of freedom.
|
40.
|
A great bird shall sweep from the Abyss of Joy, and bear ye away to be my cup-bearers.
|
41.
|
Come, O my God, in one last rapture let us attain to the Union with the Many!
|
42.
|
In the silence of Things, in the Night of Forces, beyond the accursèd domain of the Three, let us enjoy our love!
|
43.
|
My darling! My darling! away, away beyond the Assembly and the Law and the Enlightenment unto an Anarchy of Solitude and Darkness!
|
44.
|
For even thus must we veil the brilliance of our Self.
|
45.
|
My darling! My darling!
|
46.
|
O my God, but the love in Me bursts over the bonds of Space and Time; my love is spilt among them that love not love.
|
47.
|
My wine is poured out for them that never tasted wine.
|
48.
|
The fumes thereof shall intoxicate them and the vigour of my love shall breed mighty children from their maidens.
|
49.
|
Yea! without draught, without embrace:— and the Voice answered Yea! these things shall be.
|
50.
|
Then I sought a Word for Myself; nay, for myself.
|
51.
|
And the Word came: O Thou! it is well. Heed naught! I love Thee! I love Thee!
|
52.
|
Therefore had I faith unto the end of all; yea, unto the end of all.
|
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