THE SEVEN SEALS (OR : THE YES-AND AMEN-SONG)

1

If I am a soothsayer and full of that soothsaying spirit which wanders on high ridges, between two seas,—

wanders between the past and the future like a heavy cloud,enemy to sultry plains and to all that is weary and can neither die nor live:

ready for lightning in its dark bosom and for the redeeming flash of light, pregnant with lightning bolts that say yes! that laugh yes! soothsaying lightning bolts:—

—but he is blessed who is thus pregnant! And truly, long must he hang like a heavy storm on the mountain, who shall one day kindle the light of the future!—

oh how should I not lust for eternity and for the wedding ring of rings-the ring of return?22

Never yet did I find the woman by whom I wanted children, unless it be this woman, whom I love: for I love you, O eternity!

For I love you, O eternity!

2

If ever my wrath burst tombs, moved boundary stones and rolled old broken tablets into steep depths:

If ever my mockery scattered moldy words to the winds, and if I came like a broom to cross-marked spiders and as a cleansing wind to old sepulchers:

If ever I sat rejoicing where old gods lay buried, world-blessing, world-loving, beside the monuments of old world-slanderers:—

—for I love even churches and the tombs of gods, if only heaven looks through their ruined roofs with pure eyes; I like to sit like grass and red poppies on ruined churches—oh how should I not lust for eternity and for the wedding ring of rings-the ring of return?

Never yet did I find the woman by whom I wanted children, unless it be this woman, whom I love: for I love you, O eternity!

For I love you, O eternity!

3

If ever a breath of the creative breath has come to me, and of the heavenly necessity that compels even chances to dance star-dances:

If ever I have laughed with the laughter of the creative lightning, which the long thunder of the deed grumblingly, but obediently follows:

If ever I have played dice with the gods at the divine table of the earth, so that the earth quaked and ruptured and snorted forth streams of fire:—

—for the earth is a divine table, and trembling with creative new words and dice throws of the gods:

oh how should I not lust for eternity and for the wedding ring of rings-the ring of the return?

Never yet did I find the woman by whom I wanted children, unless it be this woman, whom I love: for I love you, O eternity!

For I love you, O eternity!

4

If ever I have drunk a full draft of the foaming spice-and blend-mug in which all things are well mixed:

If ever my hand has mingled the furthest with the nearest and fire with spirit and joy with sorrow and the harshest with the kindest:

If I myself am a grain of the redeeming salt which makes everything in the mixing bowl mix well:—

—for there is a salt that units good with evil; and even the most evil is worthy to be a spice and a last foaming over:—

Oh how should I not lust for eternity and for the wedding ring of rings-the ring of the return?

Never yet did I find the woman by whom I wanted children, unless it be this woman, whom I love: for I love you, O eternity!

For I love you, O eternity!

5

If I love the sea and all that is sealike, and love it most when it angrily contradicts me:

If the delight in seeking, which drives sails to the undiscovered, is in me if a seafarer’s delight is in my delight:

If ever my rejoicing has cried: “The shore has vanished-now the last chain has fallen from me—

“—the boundless roars around me, far out glisten space and time, well then! come on! old heart!”—

Oh how should I not lust for eternity, and for the wedding ring of rings-the ring of the return?

Never yet did I find the woman by whom I wanted children, unless it be this woman, whom I love: for I love you, O eternity!

For I love you, O eternity!

6

If my virtue is a dancer’s virtue, and if I often sprung with both feet into emerald golden rapture:

If my wickedness is a laughing wickedness, at home among rose banks and hedges of lilies:

-for in laughter all evil is present, but it is sanctified and absolved by its own bliss:—

And if it is my alpha and omega that everything heavy shall become light, every body a dancer, all spirit a bird: and truly, that is my alpha and omega!—

Oh how should I not lust for eternity and for the wedding ring of rings-the ring of the return?

Never yet did I find the woman by whom I wanted children, unless it be this woman, whom I love: for I love you, O eternity!

For I love you, O eternity!

7

If ever I spread out a still sky above me and flew into my own sky with my own wings:

If I swam playfully in the deep luminous distances, and the bird-wisdom of my freedom came:—

—but bird-wisdom speaks so:—“Behold, there is no above, no below! Throw yourself about, out, back, you light one! Sing! speak no more!

“—are not all words made for the heavy? Do not all words lie to the light? Sing! speak no more!”—

Oh how should I not lust for eternity and for the wedding ring of rings-the ring of the return?

Never yet did I find the woman by whom I wanted children, unless it be this woman, whom I love: for I love you, O eternity!

For I love you, O eternity!