Collected Works (Vol. I)

THE FATAL FORCE 149 CHORUS. The noise of the wind of the winter; the sound Of the wings of the charioted night ; The song of the sons of the seas profound ; The thundet of death; the might Of the eloquent silence of black ight ! RATOUM. The noise of many planets fallen far ! CHORUS. Death listens for the voice of life; mght waits dawn of wisdom: spring ! winter seeks the The RATOUM. ‘The music of all stars arisen; the breath Of God upon the valley of the dead ! CHORUS. The silence of the awaiting soul asleep ! RATOUM. The murmur of the fountain of my life! CHORUS. The whole dead universe awaits the Word. RATOUM. Now is the hour of life ; my voice leaps up In the dim halls of death, and kindling flame Roars like the tempest through forgetfulness. This is my son, whose father is my son, From my own womb complete and absolute, And in this strong perfection of myself Stands the triumphant power of my desire, Manifest over self, and man, and god ! For in the sacred coffin lies his corpse Who shall arise at the enormous word Of my creating deity ; his life Shall quicken in him, and the dead man rise, Osiris5 and all power be manifest In our supreme reunion ; let the priest Cast incense on the fire, upon the ground Let water of the fertitising Nile Be spilt, because these dark maternal breasts That gave their milk to that divinest child Are not yet full of the transcending stream That knows its fountain in my deity. The incense fumes before me: Iam come, Isis, within this body that ye know, Transmuting ! Look upon me, ye blind eyes ! Behold, dull souls and ignorant desires ! See ifI be not altogether god ! [She assumes the appearance of her mature beauty, standing before them with the wand uprarsed, Wonder and worship! Sing to me the song Of the extreme spring! Rejoice in my great streneth And infinite youth and new fertility, And lave your foreheads in this holy milk That springs, the fountain of humanity, Luminous in the temple! Raise the hymn. Cuorus. Through fields of foam ungarnered sweeps The fury of the wind of dawn ; Through fiery desolation creeps The water of the wind withdrawn. With fire and water consecrate The foam and fire are recreate. With air uniting fire and water, The springtide’s unbegotten daughter Blossoms in oceans of blue air, Flowers of new spring to bear. The sorrowful twin fishes glide Silent and sacred into sleep ; The joyful Ram exalts his pride, Seeing the forehead of the deep Glow from his palace, as the sun Leaps to the spring, whose coursers run Flaming before their golden master, As death and winter and disaster Fall from the Archer’s bitter kiss Fast to their mute abyss.