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THE SISTER OF THE ANGELS
A Mystery
"It is the serpent," she said, "I listened to him and he deceived me."
Genesis.
BIRTH
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Came to die, as his days were passed.
But is not the friendship of God life?
He departed in the night; his procession was followed
By the two young sisters of the deceased sick man,
Whither he had retired during his perils.
Martha and Mary were they; now Martha was the one
Who dispensed perfumes and ascribed blame to his zeal.
All were grieving; in vain Jesus said: "He is sleeping."
Seeing the shroud and the dead man, he himself
Wept. O holy tear given to friendship!
You were not abandonned to the winds!
A diamond urn, with Seraphim leaning over it,
Invisible to mortals, received it softly;
Like a marvel, astonishing even to the Heavens,
Carried you sparkling to the feet of the Eternal.
A favorable look from the ever-open eye
Touched the ineffable gift and caused it to shine,
And the Holy Spirit, pouring forth his power upon her,
Gave soul and life to the divine essence.
Just as the incense, which burns in the sun's rays,
Changes into pure fire, a brilliant cherry-red,
So was a white and growing form
Seen to go up from the heart of the dazzling urn.
A voice was heard which said: "Eloa!"
And the Angel appeared and said: "Here am I!"
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And her heaving breast, scarce perceived,
Raised the contours of the heavenly film.
She was both, a woman and a charming Angel;
For the spirit people, a loving family,
Near us, for us, prays and watches ever,
Uniting pure essences in holy acts of love.
Raphael the Archangel, when he came to Earth,
Under the cradle of Eden retold this sweet mystery.
But none of these sisters whom God created for them
Brought more joy to the heaven of the ever-happy.
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We must seek a name for them among the Times)
One day the inhabitants of the immortal empire,
Who once were careless, united to counsel her:
"Eloa," they said, "Oh, be very careful:
An angel can fall: the most beautiful of us all
Is here no longer. Yet in his initial virtue
He was called the light-bearer;
For h
e carried love and life in every place,
He carried God's orders to the stars,
The Earth consecrated his matchless beauty
By calling the morning star Lucifer,
A radiant diamond which the Sun had placed
On his vermilion brow amidst his golden hair.
Yet now, 'tis said, he is bereft of diadem,
He groans, he is alone, none love him,
Of crime the blackness weighs upon his eyes,
No longer does he know the tongue of Heaven,
And death resides in the words of his mouth.
He burns what he sees, he withers what he touches,
He senses not evil or good deeds;
Joyless is he at the ills which he has done.
Heaven where once he lived is troubled by his memory,
No angel will dare tell you his story,
No Saint would dare ever to utter his name.
They thought that Eloa would curse him; but no,
Fear did not change at all her untroubled face,
And this was an alarming omen for Heaven.
Not to tremble was her first impulse,
But rather to draw near as it were to help;
Sadness appeared on her icy lip
As soon as a sad thought offered itself;
She learned to dream, and her innocent face
Fell blushing at this unknown trouble.
A tear shone on her eyelid.
Happy the heart whose first tear is thus shed!
This Angel had those troubles which pester oft our days
And pursue the great in their illustrious course;
But amid the banquets, among the multitude
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A man who sighs finds solitude;
The noise of Nations, the noise made by Kings,
Nothing extinguishes in his heart a stronger voice.
Harps of Paradise, you had no wonders!
Live chariots with shining eyes
The Lord's armor, the lodges of the holy place,
The stars of the shepherds, falling from the fingers of God,
The sapphires of the censers, the gold of the heavenly dome,
The delights of the harp, the spice-boxes for cinnamon,
Your harmonious sounds, your splendors, your perfumes
Became importunate to this saddened Angel;
The holy chants troubled her revery,
For nothing satisfied her softened heart.
E'en when the Cherubim portrayed together
Either Christ's acts or those of the Saints,
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Asked what treasures they might offer her,
What might be the price of her eternal life,
If heavenly joys failed her desire:
Why sought her gaze no longer
The countenance of an Archangel or the Seraphim.
Eloa replied in a word:
"None of them has need of him whom I console.
He is said to be a..." But, turning away,
The Virgins fled, and did not say his name.
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Burned at the feet of God like a mass of altars.
Sometimes she poised on two young planets,
Sometimes she placed her feet on the surface of comets,
In order to seek out beings born elsewhere.
Then she arrived at the bottom of the lowest Heavens.
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For the songs and pity which joined them.
Indeed, how could he ever go back to the azure vault,
Presenting to the glaring, golden light
His tousled, tarnished locks,
Drab wings; arms, neck yellowish-brown,
A pale visage strangely streaked,
Amid the serene countenances of the dwellers of the clouds?
What of the eyes whose redness betrays their having wept?
What of the feet still black with pestiferous fire?
This is why the Angels of these places,
Ever prudent, ever wise, dread those paths.
THE SEDUCTION
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Into the water by a nimble rope.
She idles there, and long contemplates
The magic tableau of the shining stars,
Which seems to adorn the surface of the subterranean wave,
With a headband held by a queen's hair.
Likewise the Virgin thought to see other skies
At the bottom of Chaos which her lovely eyes observed.
Her vision, dazzled by countless Suns,
Saw first but shadow and abyss;
But soon she saw there wandering blue fires
Like the wavering flashes of the cold marshes;
They went, came back, then made escape again;
Every star seemed to chase a meteor;
And the Angel, smiling at the strange vision,
Followed with her eyes their circular light flight.
It soon appeared to her as if a pure harmony
Leapt out united from each flame to flame:
Such is the plaintive impact and sound vague yet clear
Of crystal balls hanging in the current of air
So that the young Italian in her palace
May sleep to the chimes of the Aeolian harp.
This distant sound became a supernatural chant
Which seemed to come near to the daughter of Heaven;
And these joined fires were like the dawn
Of unlooked for day ready to break forth.
A balmy cloud with a pink glow
Mounted languidly in the inflamed air,
Then slowly formed its ambrosial bed
Like the divans where sleeps soft Asia.
There a hazy celestial form appeared
Like a seated Angel young, sad, charming.
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But soon, going astray amid the clouds,
He seeks out the paths hidden by the storms;
There under a rainbow crowning the waters—
If he sees the indistinct tartan of a wandering Scotswoman
And hears her faint voice in the echos—
He stops entranced, believing that his eyes
Have glimpsed the sister of his ancestors,
A yet amorous shade who will cause a misty harp
To reverberate 'neath her transparent fingers.
He looks then for the one whom Ossian named,
And calls on Evir-Coma, standing on his rock...
The yet distant shape of the Angel of the shades
Appeared, no less beautiful, no less indistinct,
And enchantments no less delightful
Filled the eyes of the heavenly Virgin.
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Or perhaps he fears also the unintended flame
Which can at a look open up soul to soul.
So in the forest the sweet morning breeze
Begins its sighs with an uncertain noise
Which rouses the earth and makes the wave to quake;
Raising slowly his deep, sweet voice,
And assuming an accent sad as an adieu
Thus he spake to the daughter of God:
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At these sweet gleams, the magical device
Of this sweet Angel, like his brethren,
Heavenly Eloa, veiled by her wing,
Stepped back, and mounted her starry road,
As one sees a bathing girl who has spotted
A young swimmer 'neath the water flee to the reeds.
But in vain did her two feet run from the cloud
Just as the dove, in two days of flight,
Can distance herself from Aleppo, from the white tower
Whence the Sultan sends a love letter:
From his flashing look her force was broken;
And when he saw her mastered wing was bent,
The seductive foe continued quite low:
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Under the pale horizon, leaves the lawn,
We countless Spirits fly in the shadows,
Shaking our somber locks in the air;
Then does the fragrant dew till morn
Rain on the orange trees, the lilacs and the thyme.
Nature, obedient to the laws of my empire,
Welcomes me with love, hears me, breathes me in,
I become again her soul, and for my sweet intents,
Call out my subjects from the depth of elements:
Each one a familiar of my nightly feasts
Sings as he gets ready to attend.
The eloquent nightingale is first to soar aloft
To starry welkin in the pride of flight.
His sonorous voice sings out to wave, to earth,
To cloud, the place of my dear hour;
He vaunts my arrival to the pale service trees,
Repeats it to the dewy rose-bushes.
This harmonious herald everywhere proclaims me;
All the birds of the shadows open their flaming eyes.
The worm shines; his diamond countenance
Throws back to the flowers the fires of firmament,
And vies for brightness with the meteor
Which breaks forth o'er the waters like aurora pale.
The marsh star, detachèd by my hand,
Falling, traces a luminous path in air.
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There follows silence; everything sleeps deeply.
The shade harkens to a mystery, meditating.
The winds, the nearby meadows, bring ambrosia
To the sylvan bed the lover has chosen.
Soon two young voices murmur endearments
Which enliven the repose of copses mute.
At the bottom of the leafy elm whose shade greets them,
The aroused bird sings and rustles the leaves.
A voluptuous hymn thrills the air,
The trees have their songs, the bushes their concerts,
And on the edge of water, sighing, flowing by,
The dove of night warbles languidly.
THE FALL
14
It is still a veil, and the guilt is yours.
Everything bothers you, a glance offends your eyelid,
But the child fears nothing, and seeks the light.
'Neath this new power the Virgin was bending,
Indeed she was already fallen, for she blushed.
Already half submitted to the somber Spirit's yoke,
She goes down, comes up, and goes down again in the shade.
Just so you see the partridge flutter and glide
On some broken ears of wheat which she would glean,
For her entire nest awaits; in her risky flight
She cannot escape the observation of the one watching her...
The hunting dog, that somber observer,
Follows her, ever follows her with fixed and brilliant gaze.
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Finally, through your presence so able to charm me,
It was revealed to me that I could love.
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Eloa, raising the veil from her head
Got ready to speak to him with a sweet smile,
Went down closer to him, bent over, and gently
Contemplated with pride her immortal lover.
Her beautiful bosom, like a wave dissolving on the shore,
For the first time rose and sighed;
Her arm, like a white lily floating on a lake,
Stretched out, fearlessly approached.
Her perfumed mouth as it parted seemed to burst open
Like a new rose at the behest of dawn,
When morning spills on her a fresh liquor,
And the gleam of the day enters her heart.
She spoke, and her voice mellifluously assembled
All that the sweetest sounds might blend together:
A lyre harmonizing with flutes in the woods,
A bird's plaintive cry for the very first time,
The sea as its waves reach up to the shore,
Evening chants at the steps of a dreaming traveler,
The wind playing with the bells of the hamlets,
Or making the rushes sigh from the flow of the waters:
"Since you are handsome, good you needs must be.
For when a soul quits Heaven,
Like a holy vestment we see its goodness
Give it eternal beauty entering.
Yet...wherefore does your speech instill dread in me?
Why is your brow impressed with so much sadness?
How could you come down from the Holy Place?
And how, not loving God, can you love me?
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He thought how at the end of vanished time
He will thus see his Master!
How a glance from God may shatter him;
Also he remembered all he suffered
When he tempted Jesus in the desert.
He trembled; o'er his heart where Hell was recommencing
He threw his enormous wing like a somber cloak,
And wanted to flee. Terror displayed all its ills.
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That I can grasp no longer what innocence has to say.
I suffer, and my spirit, battered by evil,
No longer can attain such heights of virtue.
What has become of you, O peaceful, heavenly days
When, first among the modest Angels, I went forth
To genuflect before the ancient Law,
And thought of nothing beyond faith?
Eternity opened before me like a feast,
With flowers in my hands, a diadem on my head,
I smiled, I was...Perhaps I could have loved!"
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Thus strengthening himself against this divine vision.
He considered the place of the wounds he would inflict
Bereft of love, without remorse, from the depths of an icy heart.
Just as the warrior, purposely calm, seeks out
The chinks in his foe's armor to smite his breast,
He tailors his traits to the desires of the Angel;
Everything changes, his air, his voice, his gestures, his stature,
Crocodile tears, not from the heart, straightway appear at his eyes' edge.
In heaven the Virgin had not seen tears.
She stops; a sigh increases her alarm.
He weeps bitterly like an exile,
Like a widow over her sacrificed son;
His untied hair is scattered; nothing stops
The sobs of his breast which raise his head.
Eloa comes and weeps; they converse thus:
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At that moment, in the air, far from their eyes, there passed
One of the heavenly choirs, where, among the praises,
Could be heard these words which the Angels repeated:
"Glory in the Universe, and the Times, to one
Who sacrifices herself for the benefit of another!"
It seemed as if the Heavens spoke. It was enough for her.
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