But no. No one goes mad. The Devil does not propose to release any
one from a so beautifully-wrought, artistic damnation. He looks to
it that one’s senses are kept fully intact, and he fastens to them
with steel chains the Demon of Unrest.
It hurts--oh, it tortures me in the days and days! But when the
Devil brings me my Happiness I will forgive him all this.
When my Happiness is given me, the Unrest will still be with me,
I doubt not, but the Happiness will change the tenor of it, will
make it an instrument of joy, will clasp hands with it and mingle
itself with it,--the while I, with my wooden heart, my woman’s-body,
my mind, my soul, shall be in transports. I shall be filled with
pleasure so deep and pain so intense that my being’s minutest
nerve will reel and stagger in intoxication, will go drunk with
the fullness of Life.
When my Happiness is given me I shall live centuries in the hours.
And we shall all grow old rapidly,--I and my wooden heart, and my
woman’s-body, and my mind, and my soul. Sorrow may age one in some
degree. But Happiness--the real Happiness--rolls countless years
off from one’s finger-tips in a single moment, and each year leaves
its impress.
It is true that life is a tragedy to those who feel. When my Happiness
is given me life will be an ineffable, a nameless thing.
It will seethe and roar; it will plunge and whirl; it will leap
and shriek in convulsion; it will guiver in delicate fantasy; it
will writhe and twist; it will glitter and flash and shine; it
will sing gently; it will shout in exquisite excitement; it will
vibrate to the roots like a great oak in a storm; it will dance; it
will glide; it will gallop; it will rush; it will swell and surge;
it will fly; it will soar high--high; it will go down into depths
unexplored; it will rage and rave; it will yell in utter joy; it
will melt; it will blaze; it will ride triumphant; it will grovel
in the dust of entire pleasure; it will sound out like a terrific
blare of trumpets; it will chime faintly, faintly like the remote
tinkling notes of a harp; it will sob and grieve and weep; it will
revel and carouse; it will shrink; it will go in pride; it will
lie prone like the dead; it will float buoyantly on air; it will
moan, shiver, burst--oh, it will reek with Love and Light!
The words of the English language are futile. There are no words in
it, or in any other, to express an idea of that thing which would
be my life in its Happiness.
The words I have written describe it, it is true,--but confusedly
and inadequately.
But words are for everyday use.
When it comes my turn to meet face to face the unspeakable vision
of the Happy Life I shall be rendered dumb.
But the rains of my feeling will come in torrents!
January 28.
I am an artist of the most artistic, the highest type. I have
uncovered for myself the art that lies in obscure shadows. I have
discovered the art of the day of small things.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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