At the high-tide of night, when the first breath of dawn came upon the wind, the Soul seeker, he who calls himself echo to a voice yet unheard, left his bed-chamber and ascended to the roof of his house. Long he stood and looked down upon the slumbering city. Then he raised his head, and even as if the sleepless spirit of her who was asleep, encircled him, he opened his lips and spoke, and he said :
" My friend, you who daily pass by my gates of consciousness, I would speak to you in your sleep, and in the valley of your dreams I would walk naked and unrestrained; far heedless are your waking hours and deaf are your soundburdened ears."
" Long did I love you and overmuch."
" I love you as though you are all, and all are you. And in the spring of my heart I sang in your gardens, and in the summer of my heart I watched at your threshing floors."
" You the strong, have I loved, though the marks of your iron hoofs are yet upon my flesh; and you the weak, though you have drained my faith and laughed at my patience."
" You the poet with the barrowed lute and blind fingers, you have I loved in self-indulgence; and you the critic, ever gathering clandestine shrouds in my vacant fields."
" You the priest I have loved, who sits in the silences of yesterday questioning the fate of my tomorrow; and you the worshipper of Gods the image of your own desires."
" You the thirsting woman whose cup is ever full, I have loved in understanding; and you the woman of restless nights, I have loved in compassion."
" You the talkative have I loved, saying, ‘Life hath much to say’; and you the dumb have I loved, whispering to myself, ‘Says she not in silence that which I fain would hear in words?’ "
" You the judge, I have loved also; yet when you have seen me crucified, you said, ‘He bleeds rhythmically, and the pattern his blood makes upon his white skin is beautiful to behold.’ "
" Yea, I have loved you in all your forms."
" But alas! It was the over abundance of my heart that turned you from me. You would drink love from a cup, but not from a surging river. You would hear love’s faint murmur, but when love shouts you would muffle your ears."
" And because I have loved you all you have said, ‘Too soft and yielding is his heart, and too undiscerning is his path. It is the love of a needy one, who picks crumbs even as he sits at kingly feasts. And it is the love of a weakling, for the strong loves only the strong.’ "
" And because I have loved you overmuch you have said. ‘It is but the love of a blind man who knows not the beauty of one nor the ugliness of another. And it is the love of the tasteless who drinks vinegar even as wine. And it is the love of the impertinent and the overweening, for what stranger could be our own ?’ "
" And I say, ‘I’ll love you more, Aye, even more. I’ll hide my love with seeming to hate, and disguise my tenderness as bitterness. I’ll wear an iron mask, and only when armed and mailed shall I seek them.’ "
" Thus with my lips have I denounced you, while my heart, bleeding within me, called your tender names."
After saying these, the Soul seeker covered his face with his hands and wept bitterly. For he knew in his heart that love humiliated in its nakedness is greater than love that seeks triumph in disguise; and he was in pain.
But he waited in his heart for that one moment when the night will end, and the children of night will die when dawn comes leaping upon the hills; and out of their ashes a mightier love shall rise. And it shall laugh in the sun, and it shall be deathless……..
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