Mr. Faust Part 10

On theirs!

And who are your companions?

SATAN

Friends, who seek What you have found.

THE HOLY ONE

They have not in their eyes Wholly the look of Seekers. Pa.s.sion lurks Along their ruddy lips.... And yet, who knows?

FAUST

I offer you our greetings, reverend sir.

A long way have we come to meet with you, By Satan led.

THE HOLY ONE

And what would you with me?

FAUST

Paradise! Paradise!

THE HOLY ONE

Too hotly spoken!

Go, get you to the dancers of Tanjore....

Paradise!

OLDHAM

You belie us, Faust. Let me Have speech with him.

Most Holy One, we come, From lands far off, beyond remotest seas Of sunset. There, in midst of toil and stress And clamor, have we dwelt, till weariness Of all life's gifts impelled us to go forth To seek if anywhere a region lay Where happiness still dwelt. To you we turn As unto one upon whose face is set The seal of peace such as we dreamed not of.

SATAN

They seek the Way, the Way, most Holy One.

THE HOLY ONE

The Blessed Eightfold Way lies free to all.

I cannot ope it to them. Peace, joy, bliss, Supernal glory is it to those souls Who have put by the follies of their birth And sought its refuge. But though now I stand With lighted heart upon its blissful path, I can stretch out no hand to grasp their hands And draw them toward it.

SATAN

Yet the Blessed One, In Gaya first enlightened, far and wide Taught men the Way....

THE HOLY ONE

Aye, verily.... Some mood Of evil in my heart has closed my mouth And darkened thus my eyesight. But 'tis gone....

Brethren, have comfort on my frugal stones.

Ask me all ye desire.

SATAN

Most Holy One, These are my friends; I bring them in sore need Unto your wisdom. For methinks they stand Now at the cross-roads where the choice is made Of truth or vanity. I beg you, tell Unto their ears how, in your day, you came To that dark crossing.

THE HOLY ONE

I would do your will In this, and in all other services, My brethren.

You must know that in my youth I was a l.u.s.ty n.o.ble of the realm Of Jeypore; and the falcon and the sword And the nautch-dancers and the palace-girls Were mine to love and master like a lord.

Lordlike I lived; the caskets of the day And of the night I crowded with bright jewels Of love and joy and laughter. No desire Panted unslaked an instant at my doors-- Nay, feasts were spread for it. And poor men gazed On me with envy, muttering from their dust: "Behold, the Heavens' darling."...

OLDHAM

Other lands Know the same tale.

THE HOLY ONE

Aye, aye, all lands. And then One night, alone in mine own garden walls, Beneath the piercing stars, I gathered my life Into my hands, and looked at it, and far Beyond it at all other mortal lives; And dust fell from mine eyelids....

For I saw Birth and desire, satiety and pain, Recurrent yearning that is never stilled, Agony, death, rebirth in other forms, And agony, and desire, and agony.

But nowhere saw I happiness or peace Or rest from cravings that like vultures tear The fibres of the heart.

Then wandered I Forth from my palaces in utter pain, Seeing the world as dust and vanity, A desert of despair, a raging sea Of torment....

SATAN

Now why stops the Holy One?

THE HOLY ONE

It wearies me to speak, and to recall Those perished years.... Give me to drink.

OLDHAM

He speaks Out of familiar deeps. Seas sunder us, But the same stars have cast their ghostly rays Into our bosoms.

FAUST

And those cloudless eyes Have seen what we have seen!

THE HOLY ONE

I am refreshed....

Thus long ago, in my most desolate hour, I was refreshed by draughts from the deep springs Of light. Beneath a pipal tree I sat In lost despair; and thither to me came A pilgrim; and he glanced into mine eyes With sight that read the sickness of my soul, And sat beside me, and in measured words Like far-off song told me this parable: