Four Mystery Plays. Rudolf Steiner
Читать онлайн книгу.
in colour with a large yellow pentagonal lamp suspended from the ceiling. No other furniture or ornaments are in the room except the lamp and one chair. Benedictus, Johannes, Maria, and a child.
Maria:
I bring to thee this child who needs some word
From out thy mouth.
Benedictus:
From out thy mouth. My child, henceforth each eve
Thou shalt come unto me to hear the word
That shall fill full thy soul ere thou dost tread
The realm of souls in sleep. Wilt thou do this?
Child:
Most gladly will I come.
Benedictus:
Most gladly will I come. This very eve
Fill thy soul full ere sleep embraceth thee,
With strength from these few words: ‘The powers of light
Bear me aloft unto the spirit’s home.’
(Maria leads the child away.)
Maria:
And now, that this child’s destiny doth flow
Harmoniously through future days beneath
The shadow of thy gracious fatherhood,
I too may claim my leader’s kind advice,
Who am its mother, not by bond of blood
But through the mighty power of destiny.
For thou hast shown to me the way wherein
I had to guide its footsteps from that day,
When I discovered it before my door
Left by its unknown mother desolate.
And wonder-working proved themselves those rules
Whereby thou madest me train my foster-child.
All powers, that deep in body and in soul
Lay hidden, issued forth to light and life:
Clear proof it was that all thy counselling
Sprang from the realm which sheltered this child’s soul
Before it built its body’s covering.
We saw the hopes of manhood blossom forth
And radiate more brightly each new day;
Thou dost know well how hard it was for me
To gain the child’s affection, at the first.
It grew up ’neath my care, and yet nought else
Save habit chained its soul at first to mine.
It only realized and felt that I
Gave it the nurture and the food that served
The needs of body and the growth of soul.
Then came the time when in the child-like heart
There dawned the love for her who fostered it.
An outer incident brought forth this change—
The visit of the seeress to our group.
Gladly the child did go about with her
And soon did learn full many a beauteous word
Steeped in the mystic charm that graced her speech.
Then came the moment when her ecstasy
Descended on our friend with magic power.
The child could see her eyes’ strange smouldering light,
And, terrified unto its vital core,
The young soul dawned to consciousness of self.
In her dismay she fled unto mine arms;
And from that hour did grow her love for me.
Since that same time she doth accept from me
The gifts of life with her full consciousness
Not with blind instinct: aye, and since that day
When this young heart first quivered into warmth,
Whene’er her gaze met mine with loving glance,
Thy wisdom’s treasures of their fruitage failed,
And much already ripe hath withered up.
I saw appear in her those tokens strange
That proved so terrible unto my friend.
A dark enigma am I to myself,
And grow still darker. Thou wilt not deny
To solve for me life’s fearful questionings?
Why do I thus destroy both friend and child,
When I in love approach my work with them
To give them knowledge of that spirit-lore
Which in my soul I know to be the good?
Oft hast thou taught me this exalted truth—
‘Illusion’s veil o’erspreads life’s surfaces’—
Yet must I see with greater clarity
Why I must bear this heavy destiny,
That seems so cruel and which works such harm.
Benedictus:
Within our circle there is formed a knot
Of threads that Karma spins world-fashioning.
Thy sufferings, my friend are links in chains,
Forged by the hand of destiny, whereby
The deeds of gods unite with human lives.—
When in life’s pilgrimage I had attained
That rank which granted me the dignity
To serve with counsel in the spirit-spheres,
A godlike Being did draw nigh to me,
Who would descend into the realms of earth,
And dwell there, veiled in form of flesh, as man.
For just at this one turning-point of time
The Karma of mankind made this demand.
For each great step in world-development
Is only possible when gods do stoop
To link themselves with human destiny.
And this new spirit-sight that needs must grow
And germinate henceforth in souls of men
Can only be unfolded when a god
Doth plant the seed within some human heart.
My task it was to find that human soul
Which worthy seemed to take within itself
The powerful Seed of God. I had to join
The deed of heaven to some human lot.
My spirit’s eye then sought, and fell on thee.
Thy course of life had fitted thee to be
The mediator in salvation’s work.
Through many former lives thou hadst acquired
Receptiveness