LIBER QUARTUS VEL MORTIS
209
ORPHEUS.
No more.
AGAVE.
No longer ?
ORPHEUS.
Nothing.
AGAVE,
What then here
Dost thou amid these sacred woods?
ORPHEUS.
I weep.
AGAVE.
Weep then red wine !
AUTONOE.
Or we will draw thy tears,
Red tears of blood.
AGAVE.
On, girls! this bitter fool
Would stop our revel !
ORPHEUS.
Nay! ye bid me cease
Weeping.
AGAVE.
Then listen ! drink this deep full cup,
Or here we tear thee limb from limb!
ORPHEUS.,
Do so!
Ay, me! I am Orpheus, poor lost fool of
Fate !
Orpheus, can cha:m the wildest to my lyre.
Beasts, rocks, obey—ah, Hades, didst thou}
mock,
Alone of all, my songs? Thee I praise not.
[AUTONOE embraces him.
Audacious woman !
AGAVE,
Tear the fool in shreds!
Then to the dance!
VOL, III.
ORPHEwvs. !
The old Egyptian spell !
Stir, then, poor children, if ye can! Ah me!
[Szgs.
Unity uttermost showea,
I adore the might of thy breath,
Supreme and terrible God
Who makest the Gods and death
To tremble before thee :—
I, I adore thee !
O Hawk of gold with power enwalled,
Whose face is like an emerald ;
Whose crown is indigo as night ;
Smaragdine snakes about thy brow
Twine, and the disc of flaming light
Is on thee, seated in the prow
Of the Sun’s bark, enthroned above
With lapis-lazuli for love
And ruby for enormous force
Chosen to seat thee, thee girt round
With leopard’s pell, and golden sound
Of planets choral in their course!
O thou self-formulated sire!
Self-master of thy dam’s desire !
Thine eyes blaze forth with fiery light;
Thine heart a secret sun of flame !
I adore the insuperable might :
I bow before the unspoken Name.
For I am Yesterday, and I
To-day, and I to-morrow, born
Now and again, on high, on high
Travelling on Dian’s naked horn |
I am the Soul that doth create
The Gods, and all the Kin of Breath.
I come from the sequestered state;
My birth is from the House of Death.
Hail! ye twin hawks high pinnacled
That watch upon the universe !
Ye that the bier of God beheld !
That bore it onwards, ministers
Of peace within the House of Wrath,
1 Much of the following invocation is a free
rendering of several fine passages in the
Egyptian Book of the Dead.
O