Fenrir's Fangs

 60. 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 active
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:
  -or 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, everybody 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!