thus I hear them, now these many years,
These words of weighty import all around,
(hear them in the wind and in the wave:
Out from earth’s depths do they resound to me:
And as a tiny acorn’s mystery,
Confines the structure of a mighty oak,
So in the kernel of these words there lies,
All elemental nature; all I grasp
Of soul, of spirit, time, eternity.
It seems mine own peculiarities
And all the world besides live in these words:
‘Know thou thyself, O man. Know thou thyself.’
(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
Know thou thyself, O man.
Johannes:
Know thou thyself, O man. And now—I feel
Mine inmost being terrified to life:
Without the gloom of night doth weave me round,
And deep within my soul thick darkness yawns:
And sounding from this universal gloom
And up from out the darkness of my soul
These words ring forth: ‘Know thou thyself, O man.’
(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
Know thou thyself, O man.
Johannes:
It robs me of my very self: I change
Each hour of day, and am transformed by night.
The earth I follow on its cosmic course:
I seem to rumble in the thunder’s peal,
And flash adown the lightning’s fierce-forked tongue—
I AM.—Alas, already do I feel
Mine own existence snatched away from me.
I see what was my former carnal shape,
As some strange being, quite outside myself,
And infinitely far away from me.
But now another body hovers near,
And through its mouth I am compelled to speak:—
‘Ah, bitter sorrow hath he brought to me;
So utterly I trusted him of old.
He left me lonely with my sorrow’s pain,
He robbed me of the very warmth of life,
And thrust me deep beneath the chill, cold ground.’
Poor soul, ’tis she I left, and leaving her
It was in truth mine own self that I left;
And I must suffer all her pain and woe.
For knowledge hath endowed me with the power
Myself into another’s self to fuse.
Ah me! Ye quench again by your own power
The light of inner knowledge ye have brought,
Ye cruel words, ‘Know thou thyself, O man.’
(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
Know thou thyself, O man.
Johannes:
Ye lead me back again within the sphere
Of mine own being’s former fantasies.
Yet in what shape know I myself again!
My human form is lost and gone from me;
Like some fierce dragon do I see myself;
Begotten out of primal lust and greed.
And clearly do I see how up till now
Some dim deluding veil of phantom forms
Hath hid from me mine own monstrosity.
Mine own self’s fierceness must devour my Self.
And through my veins run like consuming fire
Those words, that once with elemental force
Revealed the core of suns and earths to me.
They throb within my pulse, beat in mine heart;
And even in mine inmost thoughts I feel
Strange worlds e’en now blaze forth like passions fierce.
They are the fruitage of these very words:
‘Know thou thyself, O man. Know thou thyself,’
(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
Know thou thyself, O man.
Johannes:
There—from that dark abyss, what creature glares?
I feel the chains that hold me chained to thee.
So fast was not Prometheus rivetted
Upon the naked rocks of Caucasus,
As I am rivetted and forged to thee—
Who art thou, fearful, execrable shape?
(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
Know thou thyself, O man.
Johannes:
Oh yea, I know thee; for thou art myself:
Knowledge doth chain to thee, pernicious beast,
(Enter Maria unnoticed by Johannes.)
Chain mine own self to thee, pernicious beast.
I willed to flee from thee; but I was blind,
