What place is this, Centurion? THE CENTURION: It is the upper pass. More rugged and difficult than the lower. THE KING: Destroy the roads! Block the approaches with stones and the trunks of trees That men may not trouble me: for I do not wish to go down into the earth again. This will suffice. Do not lament. And do not order my army to display some emphatic sign of grief. Go, nor look behind. The matter is between myself and oblivion. --I see above me the air that envelops all, and these gigantic trees, Like half-burned piles in the rivers of air, thrusting up devastated boughs To the silent call of this wall of conflagration, Giving back, as they sway together, a muffled bleating. Here I lie to rot, to lose my face like a veil, Grinning at the moon through knots of crawling worms. THE STANDARD BEARER: Do you think that man, being dead, is born again? THE KING: I do not believe in the fables of old women; Nor that the sooth-sayer, urging on his plough, sees Tagus sprout from the furrow; Nor that there exists in this temple of the world Any god other than ignorant man, Nor that this child of the woman, When he has rendered up his mortal form, Shall be born again from the womb of Isis. A CAPTAIN: What did you say? THE KING: Here I swear it to you and call the black Night to witness.... Nothing. It is a matter of no importance. I care but little about that Afterwards Which makes up all the song ... one single word. And in truth I should also care but little about what comes Before! And yet I can say that unsatisfied I go from the theatre. I die and I am living! --But for the strongest bulls this life is naught but a dandelion in the wind! Why should we wish to fortify our eyes Against the continual fatigue of sleep --Yet--Listen to me!--while you live-- A CAPTAIN: We are listening. THE KING: Listen to these last words that I can say! And first I desire for you a soaring mind, a courage with shoes of fire, As the young man chafes with impatience at the prisoning walls of his home When he has put on his boots, and dashing out, skims over the mud as if he were on wings! I bid you beware of compromise and of altering yourselves, But keep your heart immovable like a millstone, like the holy bonds of your inheritance! Take a resolution and steadfastly follow it! Tread everything under your feet, your wife and your house and yourself, as you would tread on a garment. Beware of any change! For aside from yourself what is there, can you tell me? And you yourself are something.--Lay your foundations there. Of yourselves alone are you surely masters. Beware of being dispossessed. And I, I have believed myself a power more than human, an elemental force! I have appeared in the midst of your monotonous week. I can speak no longer. God! I die anew. Shall I reappear again? Farewell! I have come to the furthest verge of life, and now once more I sink in a sea of shadows. _(He faints._