Individuality -- Fiction; Love stories; Men -- Psychology -- Fiction; Psychological fiction; Science fiction; Time travel -- Fiction
We did this work alone, for no words of ours could take the
Golden One away from the big glass which is not glass. They stood
before it and they looked and looked upon their own body.
When the sun sank beyond the mountains, the Golden One fell
asleep on the floor, amidst jewels, and bottles of crystal, and
flowers of silk. We lifted the Golden One in our arms and we
carried them to a bed, their head falling softly upon our
shoulder. Then we lit a candle, and we brought paper from the
room of the manuscripts, and we sat by the window, for we knew
that we could not sleep tonight.
And now we look upon the earth and sky. This spread of naked rock
and peaks and moonlight is like a world ready to be born, a world
that waits. It seems to us it asks a sign from us, a spark, a
first commandment. We cannot know what word we are to give, nor
what great deed this earth expects to witness. We know it waits.
It seems to say it has great gifts to lay before us, but it
wishes a greater gift for us. We are to speak. We are to give its
goal, its highest meaning to all this glowing space of rock and
sky.
We look ahead, we beg our heart for guidance in answering this
call no voice has spoken, yet we have heard. We look upon our
hands. We see the dust of centuries, the dust which hid the great
secrets and perhaps great evils. And yet it stirs no fear within
our heart, but only silent reverence and pity.
May knowledge come to us! What is the secret our heart has
understood and yet will not reveal to us, although it seems to
beat as if it were endeavoring to tell it?
PART ELEVEN
I am. I think. I will.
My hands... My spirit... My sky... My forest... This earth of
mine.... What must I say besides? These are the words. This is
the answer.
I stand here on the summit of the mountain. I lift my head and I
spread my arms. This, my body and spirit, this is the end of the
quest. I wished to know the meaning of things. I am the meaning.
I wished to find a warrant for being. I need no warrant for
being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant
and the sanction.
It is my eyes which see, and the sight of my eyes grants beauty
to the earth. It is my ears which hear, and the hearing of my
ears gives its song to the world. It is my mind which thinks, and
the judgement of my mind is the only searchlight that can find
the truth. It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will
is the only edict I must respect.
Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are
false, but only three are holy: “I will it!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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