_ THIRD PART
LX. THE SEVEN SEALS
(OR THE YEA AND AMEN LAY.)
1.
If I be a diviner and full of the divining spirit which wandereth on high mountain-ridges, 'twixt two seas,--
Wandereth 'twixt the past and the future as a heavy cloud--hostile to sultry plains, and to all that is weary and can neither die nor live:
Ready for lightning in its dark bosom, and for the redeeming flash of light, charged with lightnings which say Yea! which laugh Yea! ready for divining flashes of lightning:--
--Blessed, however, is he who is thus charged! And verily, long must he hang like a heavy tempest on the mountain, who shall one day kindle the light of the future!--
Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity and for the marriage-ring of rings--the ring of the return?
Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity!
FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY!
2.
If ever my wrath hath burst graves, shifted landmarks, or rolled old shattered tables into precipitous depths:
If ever my scorn hath scattered mouldered words to the winds, and if I have come like a besom to cross-spiders, and as a cleansing wind to old charnel-houses:
If ever I have sat rejoicing where old Gods lie buried, world-blessing, world-loving, beside the monuments of old world-maligners:--
--For even churches and Gods'-graves do I love, if only heaven looketh through their ruined roofs with pure eyes; gladly do I sit like grass and red poppies on ruined churches--
Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings--the ring of the return?
Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity!
FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY!
3.
If ever a breath hath come to me of the creative breath, and of the heavenly necessity which compelleth even chances to dance star-dances:
If ever I have laughed with the laughter of the creative lightning, to which the long thunder of the deed followeth, grumblingly, but obediently:
If ever I have played dice with the Gods at the divine table of the earth, so that the earth quaked and ruptured, and snorted forth fire-streams:--
--For a divine table is the earth, and trembling with new creative dictums and dice-casts of the Gods:
Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings--the ring of the return?
Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity!
FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY!
4.
If ever I have drunk a full draught of the foaming spice- and confection-bowl in which all things are well mixed:
If ever my hand hath mingled the furthest with the nearest, fire with spirit, joy with sorrow, and the harshest with the kindest:
If I myself am a grain of the saving salt which maketh everything in the confection-bowl mix well:--
--For there is a salt which uniteth good with evil; and even the evilest is worthy, as spicing and as final over-foaming:--
Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings--the ring of the return?
Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity!
FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY!
5.
If I be fond of the sea, and all that is sealike, and fondest of it when it angrily contradicteth me:
If the exploring delight be in me, which impelleth sails to the undiscovered, if the seafarer's delight be in my delight:
If ever my rejoicing hath called out: "The shore hath vanished,--now hath fallen from me the last chain--
The boundless roareth around me, far away sparkle for me space and time,--well! cheer up! old heart!"--
Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings--the ring of the return?
Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity!
FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY!
6.
If my virtue be a dancer's virtue, and if I have often sprung with both feet into golden-emerald rapture:
If my wickedness be a laughing wickedness, at home among rose-banks and hedges of lilies:
--For in laughter is all evil present, but it is sanctified and absolved by its own bliss:--
And if it be my Alpha and Omega that everything heavy shall become light, every body a dancer, and every spirit a bird: and verily, that is my Alpha and Omega!--
Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings--the ring of the return?
Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity!
FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY!
7.
If ever I have spread out a tranquil heaven above me, and have flown into mine own heaven with mine own pinions:
If I have swum playfully in profound luminous distances, and if my freedom's avian wisdom hath come to me:--
--Thus however speaketh avian wisdom:--"Lo, there is no above and no below! Throw thyself about,--outward, backward, thou light one! Sing! speak no more!
--Are not all words made for the heavy? Do not all words lie to the light ones? Sing! speak no more!"--
Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings--the ring of the return?
Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity!
FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY! _