"No, but they are forged! Storms bring them, drag them, here at midnight's time, When lightnings light the sky, tears pour like floods, Where hatred comes on them in grim delight, And envy digs its claws into the flesh. Remorse will sweat and wail where bellows blow. The pain is by the block with staring eyes, A blackened face, the hammer in his hand. There, now, o sheik, the pliers grab you fast. They toss you to the blaze; the bellows creak. The flame flares upwards, far beyond the roof, And all that you possess and what you are, The flesh, the mind, the soul, and all the bones, The sinews, fibres, tendons, flesh and blood, The thoughts and feelings, everything and all, Is burnt from you, is tortured and tormented Up to the whitest blaze - - -" "Allah, Allah!" "Don't scream, o sheik! I'm telling you, don't scream! For screamers are unworthy of this pain, Are thrown away to be the dross and refuse And must, at last, be molten down again. But you would want to be the steel, a blade That glistens in the paraklet's [a] own fist. Be quiet, thus! "He rips you from the fire - - He casts you on the anvil - - holds you tight. It clangs and cracks on you in every pore. The pain will start its work, the smith, the expert. He spits into his fists, and then he grasps, Lifts with both hands, the giant hammer up - - - The blows do strike. Each blow is like a murder, A murder killing you. You think you're crushed. Hot scraps spew widely, everywhere around. Your self gets thinner, smaller, even smaller, And yet, you must go back into the fire - - Again - - and yet again, until the smith Will see the spirit in hell's agony, Through all the gloom of soot and hammers' blows, Who smiles at him in calm and grateful joy. This one is fixed into the vice and ground. The file does screech, and eats away from you Whatever still - - -" "Desist! It is enough!" "It does go on, for now the drill is used, It spirals deeply - - -" "Silence! Oh, for God's sake!" etc. etc. [a] parakletos (Greek): a person called to one's aid, especially to intercede before God, used in John 14-16 for the Holy Spirit (the King James version translates it as "comforter" here) and in 1John 2:1 for Jesus Christ (the King James version translates it as "advocate" here).