Chapter 10. The Heavenly Bird.

March 10, 1927

“– Could it truly be that in our region they have lifted the ban on Hitler’s speeches?! This must be some sort of mistake! Such a thing cannot be! – cried out Stefan Kopp in extreme indignation.
– If it has already happened, then what use are empty, ghostlike lamentations? We cannot change this decision, nor in any way influence the will greater than our own. Accordingly… why burden ourselves with thoughts of it? At the very hour when politicians give themselves over to politics, we, servants of art, must more fiercely and furiously than ever serve art! Here, Stefan, read my new work instead! – Matthias Spitz, with great conviction, handed over his latest creation, and without hesitation, Stefan Kopp plunged into this truly unique cosmic reality:

‘Burned by bitter love,
Denis Ramis wandered by night,
Through unlit streets –
His only companions, rooks and owls,
Breaking the silence now and then
With weary tones,
With timbres of existence’s grief.
Yielding to the power of his feelings,
To hopes shattered only yesterday,
He walked endlessly somewhere,
Never closing his eyes –
Like the spirit of Ahasuerus,
Unable to find shelter
In fantasies or chimeras,
In houses or in boggy mire.

Only imagining her,
At the moment when refusal became reality,
For the life that, languishing,
Saw the highest of earthly charms
In love without self-interest –
Denis Ramis tormented himself:
His soul had beheld in her
The bliss of sweet life,
Wholly blessed with happiness,
And radiant beams of warmth.
Often in rebellious flame,
That reduces all to ashes and dust,
We glimpse a beauty, yet corrupting,
For such is nature’s brow,
And even more for roots
That draw too close to fire.
This fire was called Alexandra –
Her refusal seared his chest, punishing.

Denis Ramis – restless soul! –
Why did you drink the wine of her eyes,
That torturous sweetness,
On the tender day of feeling?
Why did you gaze upon sacred youth,
The captive of her purest flesh?
Why taste the intoxication of her lips at dawn,
The spell of her lashes,
Betraying the very limits of being
For this fleeting deceit?
Why drown yourself in the heavens,
In those clouds whose whiteness,
In azure tenderness enthralled,
Shone through her eyes?
You are to blame, Denis, naïve one –
You alone are guilty!
For believing in a wondrous image,
You will be hurled into the abyss of reality,
Dishonorably and roughly,
By Themis, whose name is Life.

Ah, how foolish to believe in this world
That you will find love returned – that prize!
There, where enduring is impossible,
And to lose is death itself.
But how empty are such words,
When lashes, like whips of movement,
Caress Denis’ brow
With a burning, chilling gaze –
Does it matter? It scorches
Like the distant fragrance of stars,
That great gaze of the poet’s soul.
Denis, rejected and driven,
Deprived of the pledge of fidelity,
Who loved with languor, yet unloved,
He asked God for happiness…
And then begged for death,
To soothe his soul’s unrest,
To quell its fervent flame.

But God, smiling silently,
Ignored with love
The one who, shut in thorns,
Remained His child.
Then Denis, praying again,
Raised a daring plea –
That to overcome the soul’s disquiet,
And to give his spirit lightness,
The Almighty might turn his wailing essence
Into a bird:
He would strive for heaven –
But truly for one reason:
He wished to be transformed into a bird
That he might behold her face nearby,
And not languish in bitter feelings,
Breeding evil within himself.

God answered him in silence.
Lowering his gaze, Denis
Was greeted instead by him
Cast out of the mountains of Eden –
The cunning Lucifer.
In an instant, the sly tempter
Remade the naïve youth
Into the bright, variegated form of a bird:
In exchange he demanded but little,
By the logic of his intrigue –
Only his soul after death.
Denis did not think at that moment –
He sealed the pact in blood,
And flew from Lucifer’s mocking eyes,
Who smiled boldly.

Circling fervently in the air,
Having sold his soul, he rose upward,
Soaring toward her,
Who lay in tender sleep.
Alighting by her window,
He looked within nobly
And saw her alone –
The gift of heavenly rapture!
Enflamed as before,
He expressed his confession in dance,
And in that dance he became!

Those joyous moments,
Stretching until dawn,
Made him the happiest in the world,
Though this avian essence
Bound his movements –
It could not bind his tender feelings!
At morning’s awakening,
She, not knowing sorrow,
In great amazement of the heart,
Saw in her window a bird –
The transfigured Denis,
Rejected as plaintiff
By the highest authority.
Smiling tenderly,
She touched the warm feathers,
Lowered her youthful face,
And left a kiss for Denis –
The young Ramis was beside himself,
From the exchange of bitterness and pain
For eternal happiness.

Much fire arose in his soul,
And flying away with purest feeling,
He offered tokens of love
To her, purer than any maiden,
A source of soul in Castalia,
A creation of garden and blossom.
Melted in soul and reason
By this youth’s tenderness,
She rewarded the bird with bread –
To eat from her hands, oh gift!
Denis’ soul soared into heaven,
His body faint like a quasar!
Thus, in embraces day after day,
In sensual kisses,
Their ardent souls realized
How wondrously close they were…