Collected Works (Vol. I)

142 THE FATAL FORCE S’AFI. Speak ! I have this much of a god in me— I am not shaken at your cries; my lips Are silent at your -blasphemy ; my ears Are strong to hear if there be truth at all In your mixed murmurs: I command you, speak ! AMENHATEP. The burden of the madness of the Queen Lies on the land: the Syrian is near ; And she, believing that her godhead guards Her people, sleeps. The altars are thrown down ; The people murmur. wrong, But be thou mighty to avenge ! She hath done thee S’AFI. To-day I, Horus, shall become Osiris. Yea, Strange secret dreams of some mysterious fate Godlike have come upon me, and the throne Totters for your disloyalty. AMENHATEDP. Beware ! How died thy father? S’AFTI. That amazing god Incarnate in him chose a nobler form, And in my mother’s body sought his home, Whose double incarnation is divine Beyond the old stories. Yes, Iam a god. AMENTATEP. Beware the fatal magic of her heart ! For she is great and evil, and her voice Howls blasphemy against yet living gods. Thou knowest not the story of thy birth, The truth. S’AFI. Then speak the truth, if so a priest May tune his tongue to anything but lies. AMENHATEP. Sixteen strange seasons mingle gold and grey Since in this very temple she, the Queen, Spake, and threw open to our reverent gaze A royal womb made pregnant with that seed Of which thou art the harvest. She spake thus : ‘* Princes, and people of the Egyptian land, And broken priests of broken deities Discrowned this hoar, look up, behold your god ! For I am pregnant with my own son’s child, The fruit of my desire’s desire. Most pure, The single spirit of my godhead yearned From death to reap dominion, and from birth To pluck the blossom of its fruitful love, And be the sun to ripen and the rain To water it. My soul became the bride To its own body, and my body leapt With passion from mine own imperial loins Begotten, and made strong from my own soul To answer it. I hail thee, son of mine, Thou royal offspring of a kingly sire, Less kingly for the single flower of love! I hail thee, son, the secret spouse of me, King of my body and this realm to-day ! For lo! the child leapt up within my womb, Hailing me mother, and my spirit leapt, Hailing him brother! Son and spouse and king, Eexulting father of the royal soul That lies here, loving me, assume thy crown And sit beside me, equal to thy queen. For look ye to the burning south, and see The sun grown amorous, and behold his fire Leap to my godhead. For without a man I single, [ the mother, have conceived Of my own loins, and made me no less god Than all your gods! Ye people and ye priests, Behold the burden of my life, and fear,