Mark André ’s Reviews > Dithyrambs of Dionysus > Status Update

Or like the eagle that, for a long time,
A long time gazes with a fixed stare into abysses,
Into its abysses ...
-- Oh how they spiral downwards,
Down, down under,
Into ever deeper depths! --
Then,
Suddenly,
Plummeting straight down
Wings pulled out
To pounce on lambs'
Right down, hot-hungry,
Lusting for lambs,
Hating all lamb-souls,
Grimly hating whatever looks
Virtuous, sheepish, curly-wooled,
Dull

Day of my life!
Towards evening it passes!
Already your eye gleams
Half-open,
Already your dew wells up
Teardrops,
Already flowing quietly over white seas
Your crimson love,
Your final gradual bliss ...

[The Sun Sinks Part 2, 2nd section]

Day of my life!
The sun sinks
Already the smooth rising tide
Stands gilded.
The rock breathes warmth:
Does happiness sleep well to noon
In its midday slumber?
In green lights
Happiness still plays over the brown abyss.

[The Sun Sinks Part 2, 1st section]

Merely speaking colorfully,
Climbing about on deceptive word-bridges,
On misleading rainbows,
Between false heavens
Rambling, lurking--
Only fool! Only poet!

This--the suitor of truth?

[from Only Fool! Only Poet! second stanza]

"The suitor of truth--you?" --thus they mocked me--
"No! Only a poet!"
A cunning, plundering, stealthy beast,
That must lie,
That knowingly, willingly must lie,
Lusting after prey,
Colorfully masked,
Self-shrouded,
Prey for itself
This--the suitor of truth? ...
Only fool! Only poet!