Collected Works (Vol. I)

THE FATAL FORCE ISI RATOUM. I have loved thee ever; I have made thee god. S’AFI. I hate myself, and therefore I hate thee. RATOUM. J am still goddess, still desire thy love. That leper lies : thou art indeed a god. S'AFI, Iam a god to execute my will. [Zhreatens her with hts dageer. RATOUM. Mercy! Thou canst not strike a woman down! S’AFI. So! The thin casing of the godhead rots, Mere mummy-cloth: the rotten corpse within, Dust and corruption! Iam still the god, And gods slay women: therefore I slay thee. RATOUM. Then thou shalt see me once again a god ! [Ay a tremendous effort she towers before hint Silently they gase at one another for a while, he vatnuly endeavourins to force himself to strike. Al last she collapses into the throne; he springs forward and adres his kutfe 710 her, THE LEPrER. It is finished! The sacrament is made! The god Has flamed within the allar-cake: ’tis done! [Selences presently THE LEPER breaks znto a horrible, stlent, sniooth laughter, Agatn stlence, S’AFIL. I am done with godhead: let me be a man. CHORUS, Hail, S’afi, king of Egypt and the Nile! Hail, S’afi, Lord of the two lands,? all hail! S’AFI. King of himself and lord of life and death, No lesser throne! [have borne meas a god, Avenging on my nearest blood the sin That brought me shameful to the shameless light. I have not faltered nor turned back at all, Nor moved my purpose for a moment’s thought. Nor will Tnow. The god is gone from me, And as a man I feel the living shame Of my existence, and the biting brand Of murder set upon me, and the sting Of my discrownéd forehead. I shall die Ifaving this proof of my own nobleness To soothe the rancour of my stricken soul In the abodes of night, that I have dared, With the first knowledge to make good my spirit Against its fate, to steel my flinching heart Against all men, dominions, shapes, and powers, Seen and unseen, to justice and to truth, Sought out by desolate ways of hateful deeds, And so set free myself from my own fate, Whom I will smite to end the coil of things Here, to begin—what life? lor Life I know Stands like a living sentinel behind The rugged barrier of death, the gates Where the rude valley narrows, and man hears ‘The steep and terrible cataract of time Break, and lose shape and substance in the foam And spray of an eternity of air! My death, and not my life, may crown me king ! 1 Upper and Lower Egypt.