"Black Sin" "You now I call upon across the fields," "Call down and in from the slow clouds, hot sun-rays" "Of noontide, you the most matured, so that" "In you I'll recognize my new life's day." "For all is different now; and gone, dispelled," "My human grief!" "as though grown birdlike, graced" "With pinions overnight, I feel so light" "Up here, so well, and rich enough and glad" "And glorious here I dwell where Father Etna" "Tenders hospitably the fiery chalice" "Filled to the brim with spirit, garlanded" "With flowers that for himself he has reared up." "Whenever, too, the subterranean thunder" "Festively roused now to the cloudy seat" "Of his close relative, the Thunderer," "To joy flies up, then my heart also grows." "Here with the eagles I sing natural songs." "Of that he never thought, my royal brother," "When ignominiously he made me leave" "Our city, that in exile, in the wilds" "A different life would blossom out for me." "He never knew, that clever one, what blessing" "He was bestowing on me when he severed" "My human bonds, when he declared me free," "Free as the birds are, winged for heavenly flight." "And that was why!" "for that it was fulfilled!" "And they, the people once my own, could arm" "Themselves with curses, taunts against my soul" "And drive me out, and not for nothing still" "My ears reverberate with the hundred-voiced," "Their hard, cold laughter when the fantast turned," "The silly dreamer, and weeping went his way." "By Hades!" "amply I deserved it all." "And it was good for me; poison heals the sick," "And we are purged of one sin by another." "For sinned I have, and greatly, from my youth," "Never have loved men humanly, but served" "Only as fire or water blindly serves them." "And therefore too not humanly towards me" "They acted, but defiled my face and used me" "Like you, all-suffering Nature!" "And it is you" "That hold me now, I'm yours, and between you" "And me once more the old love rises up," "You call, you draw me close and ever closer." "And when the breaker swells and when the Mother" "With her own arms enfolds me, O what could I," "What could I fear." "Though other men, it's true," "Might well be frightened." "For it is their death." "O you well known to me, enchanting one," "Terrible flame!" "How quietly you dwell" "Now here, now there, how you avoid yourself," "Flee from yourself, you soul of all that lives!" "No longer hide, bound spirit, from my sight," "For me grow bright, because I do not fear it." "For death is what I seek." "It is my right." "Already, youth, like sunrise all round me" "And underneath, the ancient wrath roars by." "Down with you, down, my poor complaining thoughts!" "Painstaking heart, my need for you is over." "For some time, dear friend, And not in vain, I have been up, surveying" "The prospect and the site of this new home." "They've banished us, reviled you, kindly man," "And, friend, believe me, long before that time" "Found you insufferable; tenderly" "Into their rubble and their night it shone," "Too bright for those despairing ones, your light." "Now let them end the business, undisturbed" "Through shoreless squalls, while clouds conceal the star," "In circles let them now propel their ship." "Up here, there is a new home country" "This I knew well, divine one, that from you" "That dart rebounds which wounds and fells another." "And harmlessly, as on a magic wand" "Tame serpents will, around you ever played" "The faithless mob that you yourself reared up," "Lovingly tended, warmed against your heart." "Well, let them be." "Misshapen let them reel" "Close to the soil that bears them, shunning light," "And all-desiring, all-intimidated," "Run themselves weary;" "let their slow fire burn" "Till it goes out—peacefully we live here." "Yes, we live peacefully; and vastly here" "The holy elements reveal themselves." "Ever the same, the untoiling joyously," "Surely and powerfully stir around us." "On its firm shores advances and reposes" "The ancient sea, and the great mountains rise" "With music of their springs, the green woods flow" "And roar and rustle down from vale to vale." "And at the top light lingers, Aether stills" "Our minds and the more secret of our longings." " Here we live peacefully." " So you will stay" "Here on these heights, and live in your own world," "And I shall serve you, see to what we need." "Little is needed, and that willingly" "From now on I will see to and provide." "Nevertheless, already, my dear teacher," "I've made provision for your urgent needs." " And do you know them?" " How could I not know" "What would suffice the highly self-sufficient;" "How in that life which now is the dear care" "Of tender Nature, even smallest things" "Mean much to one long grown familiar to me." "While you slept well here on the bare, hard ground" "In blazing sunshine, yet it seemed to me," "A softer bed to lie on and cool night" "Within firm walls, in safety, would be better." "Besides, all-suspect even in these wilds" "Almost we are too near to other men's homes'." "Not wishing to be far from you for long," "I hurried to these parts and quickly found" "A quiet house, fitting for you and me." "Dense oak-trees there surround a sheer great rock" "Up in the mountain-range's gloomy midst," "A spring wells up nearby, and all around" "There's plenty of good plants, and more than plenty" "Of leaves and grass for bedding." "There they'll leave" "You unmolested, and when you meditate," "And when you sleep, all's deep and still for you," "See for yourself now, come, and never say" "You've no more use for me—who else should use me" "You are too useful." " Could I be?" " You too" "Are all too loyal; you're a foolish child." "Well you may say so, but I can be no wiser" "Than to belong to him whose child I am." " Are you so sure of that?" " How can I help it?" "Why else, when like an orphan on a shore" "That breeds few heroes, sadly I strayed about" "Seeking a tutelary god, did you," "Most kind one, offer me your hand?" "Why else" "With your unstraying eyes, in your sure orbit," "Did you, most noble light, rise in my dawn?" "Since then I have been different, and am yours," "And closer to you, lonelier with you," "My soul grows all the gladder and more free." "Tell any tales you please—but to yourself;" "For me what's past is done with once for all." "O, I know well enough what's past for you," "But you and I, must our good bonds be broken?" " I beg you, speak of other things, my son." " What else is there?" " No, please - not that." " Why not?" "What is it?" "Can" "A friendly word distress you, then, my teacher?" "Come, follow me, keep silent, friend, and spare me," "Unlike those others, do not stir my heart." "Did they not turn my memories into daggers?" "And seek me out, and ask me this and that." "No, you are not to blameonly, my son," "I cannot bear too deep, too close a probing." "And so you cast me off!" "Think of yourself," "Be what you are and look at me and give me" "A token of your former self and friendship." "Away!" "I've told you once and say again," "It is not right that uninvited here" "You prod my soul, as though incapable" "Of other movement now, in pitiable fear" "Always you cling to me." "But you must know," "I am not yours, no more than you are mine," "Where you walk, I do not; my blossoming" "Elsewhere awaits me." "And that of which I speak" "Not now has come about, not on this day," "But at my birth already was decided." "Look up and dare to know it: what is One" "Breaks up, yet in its bud love does not die," "And everywhere in bold, untrammelled joy," "Unforced, the airy tree of life divides." "No temporal tie remains what it has been;" "Child, we must part; and, please, do not obstruct" "My destiny, and do not hesitate." "But, look!" "Earth's drunken image gleams," "Holy, divine, and present to you, friend;" "Through every land it roars, it teems and rushes," "And youthful, light, yet serious too and pious," "It changes, that perpetual round dance" "Wherewith we mortals celebrate the Spirit," "The ancient Father." "There now go, join in," "There move ungiddied, humanly, and think of me at evening." "But as for me, It is the quiet hall that's fitting, one more spacious, higher up, remote, aloof," "For rest is what I need, too heavy now" "My limbs have grown for the quick, busy dance" "Of mortals, and if in it once I sang" "A canticle of praise with youthful zest," "The delicate instrument, my lyre, is shattered." "O melodies above me!" "It was all a jest!" "And childlike then I dared to imitate you," "A light unfeeling echo rang in me," "More gravely now I hear you, voices of the gods." "I do not recognize you, only sad" "To me is what you say, but all a riddle." "What have I done, what have I done to you" "That now, as the mood takes you, you offend me" "And namelessly your heart strives and rejoices" "To rid itself of this one friend, the last." "I never dreamed of that when after exile," "Shyly avoiding human habitations," "Together through the desolate night we trudged," "And not for that I was beside you, dear one," "When mixed with tears the rain of heaven poured" "Down from your face, nor yet for that looked on" "When smiling in the noonday sun you dried" "Your rough slave's tunic on the shadowless sand," "When like a wounded animal's, hour after hour" "The trail you left was one of blood that trickled" "From your bare heels on to the rocky path." "Oh, not for that I left my house and bore" "The curse both of my father and my people," "That now, because you wish to rest and settle," "You'd cast me off like a discarded vessel." "And is it far you're going?" "Where?" "O where?" "I'll stay with you, for though no secret pact," "Such as you formed, binds me to powers of Nature," "The future things you see are closed to me," "Yet bravely out into the night of gods" "My mind directs its flight, and even now" "Goes in no fear of those more mighty glances." "Indeed, if I were feeble in myself," "My love for you would make me strong as you are." "By Hercules, the divine!" "though you resolved" "To visit and appease those violent ones" "Who dwell below, the Titans, and climbed down" "Into the bottomless valley from that summit there," "Daring to tread the sanctum of the abyss" "Where, patient, Earth conceals her heart from day" "And the dark Mother will confide to you" "Her sufferings, her griefs, O son of Night," "Of Aether, even then I'd follow you down." "Then stay!" "How do you mean that?" "You have given" "Yourself to me, are mine; now ask no questions!" " So be it!" " Will you say that once again," "And pledge your blood and soul to me for ever?" "As though I'd only blabbed an idle word" "And made a promise between sleep and waking?" "You doubting man!" "I say it and repeat it:" "This too, this too was not determined now," "But at my birth already was decided." "I am not what I am, Pausanias," "And not for years may sojourn here, become" "Only a gleam, a glint that soon must pass," " One note the lyre-strings hold—" " Then let them sound" "Together let them vanish in the air!" "And kindly will the echo of them speak." "No longer tempt me, try me now, but grant me" "Such honour as deservedly is mine." "Am I not filled with grief enough, as you are?" "How can you add the sting of your disdain!" "All-sacrificing heart!" "So this one gives" "His golden youth away, all for my sake!" "And I!" "O Earth and Heaven, look, even now," "Still you are near, though now the hour runs out," "And blossom for me, and delight my eyes." "Still, as before, I hold you in my arms" "As though you were mine, as though you were my booty," "And the dear dream beclouds me once again." "Yes, glorious it would be if to the pyre" "Instead of one, a lonely man, arm in arm" "Like this a festive pair towards nightfall went," "And gladly I would take what here I loved," "As might a noble river all its sources," "Down for libation into holy Night." "Yet it is better that each go his own way" "And walk the path that God ordained for him." "More innocent it is, and does no harm;" "And it is meet and right that everywhere" "Men's minds should be self-governed and self-owned." "Besides—more safely and more easily" "A man will bear his burden when alone." "Have your own will!" "I'll not oppose my own." "You say so, and no doubt it's true, and precious" "To me, and apt, this parting word from you." "I'll go, then, and in future shall not trouble" "Your peace of mind; and for my own good surely" "You hint that stillness ill becomes my kind." " But you're not angry, friend?" " With you?" "With you?" "What is it, then?" "Oh, where to go?" "What now?" " Tell me, direct me!" " That was my last command," "Pausanias." "My government is ended." "My father, counsel me!" "No doubt there's much" "That I should say, yet I withhold it from you," "For almost now for mortal conversation" "And idle words my tongue will serve no more." "Look, dearest one, it's different now, and soon" "More lightly and more freely I shall breathe, And as that snow up there on Etna's peak grows warm in sunlight, gleams and the glad bow of Iris the bright-blossoming, Flexed, rises up where those quick billows fall," "So from my heart it billows, what time heaped up for me," "The heaviness falls and falls, and brightly blooms" "That other life, aetherial life, above me." "Now bravely travel, son; upon your brow" "With heart and soul and lips I lay good wishes," "There in the distance glimmer Italy's hills," "The Roman land, the rich in deeds, is beckoning," "Then; you will prosper, there, where gladly bold" "In the arena men compete with men," "Cities of heroes there!" "And you, Tarentum," "You brotherly mansions where so often once" "Drunken with light I walked at Plato's side" "And to us youths for ever new the year," "And every day seemed, in our holy school." "Visit him too, my son, and take my greetings" "To my old friend by his own homeland's river," "By flowery Ilissus where he dwells." "And if your spirit will not rest, then go" "And question them, my brothers in Egyptos." "There you will hear the lilt of serious lyres," "Urania's, and modulated music." "There you will realize a great many things, and that we mortals, that we are in each other's eyes only signs and images" "This you will no longer regret, friend." "Well, long enough you've pondered and delayed." "Now perish, perish!" "so that soon it will" " Grow bright and quiet, phantom!" " What?" "Where from?" " Who are you, man!" " One of those miraculous ones who, when the sting pains them, weave dreams." "In solace one descended from the clan of the poor" "Sent at the right time, sent to you who think" "Yourself the favourite of Heaven, to name" "The wrath of Heaven, that God's who never rests." " Ha, so you know him?" " This and that I told you" " Once by the distant Nile." " And you?" "You here?" "No wonder." "Now that to the living I" "Have died, it is the dead who rise for me." "The dead refuse to speak, where you consult them." "Yet if you need a word from me, then hear." "The voice that calls to me I hear already." " And that is how it talks?" " What does your talk mean, stranger?" "Yes, I'm a stranger here, and among children." "For all you Greeks are that - as before now" "I've often said." "But was it not your will" "To tell me how you fared among your people?" "Why do you raise the past?" "And call to me again?" " I fared as fare I must." " And I foreknew it" "All long ago, and prophesied it to you." "Well, then, why do you now detain it?" "Threaten" "Me with the flame of that God whom I know," "Whom as a plaything willingly I serve," "And make to judge my sacred right, you blind man!" "That which awaits you now I shall not alter." "So you came here to see how it turns out?" "O do not jest, but honour your festive day," "Garland your head, and solemnly array it," "The votive beast that not in vain will fall." "Death, sudden death, as well you know, for those" "Who do not comprehend, for such as you," "From the beginning has been preordained." "You wish it, and so be it!" "Yet not unthinking" "As now you are, would I have you go down," "I have a word, and, drunken man, that consider:" "One only has the privilege, at this time," "One only your black sin serves to ennoble." "Greater he is than I. For as the vine" "To Earth and Heaven bears witness, when transfused" "By the high sun it rises from dark soil," "So he grows up, born of both light and darkness." "Round him the world ferments, whatever is" "Movable and pernicious in the hearts" "Of mortals, from its depth and centre is stirred up." "The Lord of Time, afraid for his dominion," "Glowering on his throne surveys revolt." "His day extinguishes, his lightning shines," "Yet that which flames above, and that which presses" "Up from below, further ignite contention." "The One, however, the new saviour calmly" "Seizes the rays of Heaven, and lovingly" "Takes to his bosom those of mortal mould," "And in him the world's conflict is allayed." "Between the gods and men he mediates," "The gods live near again, as in the past," "And so that, having once appeared, the Son" "Shall not be greater than his parents, nor" "The holy Spirit of life remain in bondage," "Forgotten because of him, the Only One," "He turns aside, the idol of his time." "And, that a pure hand for the Pure may do" "What must be done, by his own choice he breaks" "His own good fortune, grown too great for him," "And to the element that gave him glory" "Gives back all his possessions, purified." "Are you that man?" "The same?" "That very man?" "I know you in the darkening word, and you," "Omniscient one, me too have recognized." "O tell me who you are!" "And who am I?" "Still do you tempt me, even now, and come," "My evil spirit, to me at this hour?" "And will not let me go in peace now." "Why?" "And dare accost me me here and bait and rouse me" "So that in anger I walk the holy paths?" "I was a boy and did not know what things" "They were that stirred about my eyes in daylight," "And marvellously the world's powers and shapes," "The great and joyous, wrapped themselves around" "My slumbering, my inexperienced heart." "And wondering often I heard the waters flow" "And saw the sun in flower, and by that flame" "Kindled the youthful day of quiet Earth." "Then song arose in me, my darkling heart," "Illumined, warmed by poetry that was prayer," "When by their names I called those alien ones," "Those closely present ones, the gods of Nature," "And spirit in the word, life's mystery" "In the found image blissfully was resolved." "So quietly I grew up, and other things" "Already were prepared." "More forcefully yet," "Like water, did the savage human wave" "Beat on my breast, and the poor people's voice," "Humming in blind confusion, reach my ear." "And when, while silent in my room I sat," "At midnight tumult and revolt cry out," "And through the fields they rush, and weary of life" "With their own hands break up their own good houses" "And temples, long made odious, and forsaken," "When brothers fled each other, men hurried past" "Those they loved most, and fathers no longer knew" "Their sons, and human language had become" "Incomprehensible, and human law," "The meaning of it, shivering me, struck home:" "It was the departure of my people's god!" "Him I could hear, and up to the silent planet" "Whence he had come to us, I turned my gaze." "And to propitiate him I set out." "Still many a happy day was granted us." "Still, in the end, renewal seemed at hand;" "And, my mind fixed upon the golden age," "When trust was general, that bright, strong morning," "My gloom, the people's terrible gloom, dispersed" "And we made pacts as firm as they were free," "Yet often, when the people's gratitude" "Crowned me with wreaths, and ever closer to me," "To me alone, the people's soul drew, quickly" "It dawned on me: that where a land must die" "The Spirit at the last elects one more" "Through whom the swansong, the last life, shall sound." "Well I divined it, yet I served him gladly." "Now it is done." "And nevermore shall I" "Belong to mortals." "O my evening time!" "O Spirit, you that reared us, secretly" "Both in the cloud and in the bright noon govern," "And you, O light, and you, O Mother Earth," "See, I am here, and calm, for now awaits me" "The hour long since matured, the turning-point." "No longer in the image now, nor yet" "As formerly, with mortals, in brief joy," "No, but in death I find the Living One" "And this day shall confront him, for this day" "It is that he, the Lord of Time, in token, In celebration of it, ushers in" "A thunderstorm prepared for him and me." "Is it intelligible, known to you, The stillness all around us here, the silence of the unslumbering god?" "Await him here!" "At midnight lie will consummate it for us." "If, as you say, you are the Thunderer's" "Familiar, and unanimous with him," "Acquainted with the paths, your spirit journeys," "Then come with me when now, too much alone," "The heart of Earth laments, and mindful of" "The ancient unity, now the dark Mother" "Up towards Aether extends her fiery arms," "And now the Ruler comes within his beam," "And thereupon, to prove ourselves his kin," "We follow him down amid the holy flames." "But if you'd rather stand aside, aloof," "Why grudge it, then, to me?" "If as your own" "To you it was not granted, why deprive" "And trouble me?" "You rather, heavenly spirits," "Who when I started out were near to me," "You far-designing ones, to you I owe it" "That here I may cut off and put an end" "To the long chain of suffering, liberated From other duties, in self-chosen death and in accordance with god-given laws!" "Forbidden fruit for you, man!" "Therefore leave me," "And if you cannot follow me, do not judge!" "Pain has inflamed your mind." "I pity you." "Sage that you are, then why do you not heal it?" "How is it with us?" "Do you see so clearly?" "You ask me that?" "You that can see all things?" "Let us be silent, son, and always learn." "You taught me once; now this day learn from me." "Have you not told me everything?" "Far from it!" " And now you're going?" " No, not yet, old seer!" "No, from this good green earth my eye shall not" "Depart without a tribute of late gladness." "And still I wish to dwell upon things past," "Recall once more the dear friends of my youth" "Remote now in the happy towns of Hellas," "My brother too, who cursed me - so it had" "To be." "Now leave me." "When over there the light" "Of day goes down, you'll see me once again." "New world" "and a brazen vault" "Heaven hangs over us, a curse freezes the limbs of mortals, and the strengthening, joy-giving presents of Earth are like chaff, the" "Mother mocks us with her gifts and all is mere semblance " "O when, when will it break at last, the flood, over the parched land." "But where is he?" "That he might adjure the living spirit" "English translation by Michael Hamburger" "Subtitle timing and additional translation by Kane32 for karagarga.net"