SONG OF BAAL
Man has rent younder azure veil | |
and, beyond the sky, has seen no God. | |
What is there in mans heart but thoughts, | |
like waves this upsurging and that fleeing? | |
His soul takes repose in the sensible; | 1645 |
would that the past age might return! | |
Long live the European orientalist | |
who has drawn us forth from the tomb! | |
Ancient gods, our time has come! | |
Behold, the ring of unity is broken, | 1650 |
Abrahams people have lost the joy of Alast; | |
its company is scattered, its cup in fragments, | |
the cup which was drunken with the wine of Gabriel. | |
Free man has fallen into the bonds of directions, | |
joined up with fatherland and parted from God; | 1655 |
his blood is cold of the glory of the ancients, | |
the Elder of the Sanctuary has tied the Magian girdle. | |
Ancient gods, our time has come! | |
The days of joy have returned to the world, | |
religion has been routed by sovereignty and lineage. | 1660 |
What thought is there now of the lamp of the Chosen One, | |
seeing that a hundred Bu Lahabs blow it out? | |
Though the cry There is no god rises up still | |
how should that remain on the lips which has gone from the heart? | |
The Wests enchantment has revived Ahriman; | 1665 |
the day of God is pale-cheeked, fearful of the night. | |
Ancient gods, our time has come! | |
Religions chain must be loosed from his neck, | |
our slave was ever a free slave; | |
since the ritual prayers are heavy for him, | 1670 |
we seek only one prayer, and that without prostration. | |
Passions are elevated by songs, | |
so what pleasure is there in prayers without hymns? | |
Better the demon that makes itself visible | |
than a God to whom the Unseen is meet. | 1675 |
Ancient gods, our time has come! |