Lament of Hermes - Akira the Don

Do you know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of heaven?

Or to speak more exactly, in Egypt all the operations of the powers which rule

and work in heaven are present in the Earth below

In fact, it should be said that the whole cosmos dwells in this our land as in

a sanctuary

And yet, since it is fitting that wise men should have knowledge of all events

before they come to pass

You must not be left in ignorance of what I will now tell you

There will com a time when it will have been in vain that Egyptians hav honored

the Godhead with heartfelt piety and service, and all our holy worship will be

fruitless and ineffectual

For the gods will return from Earth to heaven

Egypt will be forsaken, and the land which was once the home of religion will

be left desolate

Bereft of the presence of its deities

Oh, Egypt, Egypt

Oh, Egypt, Egypt

Oh, Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale

Oh, Egypt, Egypt

Oh, Egypt, Egypt

Oh, Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale

Which thine own children in time to come will not believe

Nothing will be left but graven words, and only the stones will tell of thy

piety

And in that day men will be weary of life

And they will cease to think the universe worthy of reverent wonder and worship

They will no longer love this world around us

This incomparable work of God, this glorious structure which he has built,

this sum of good made up of many diverse forms, this instrument whereby the

will of God operates in that which he has made, ungrudgingly favoring man’s

welfare

This combination and accumulation of all the manifold things that call forth

the veneration, praise, and love of the beholder

Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable

than life

No one will raise his eyes to heaven

The pious will be deemed insane, the impious wise

The madman will be thought a brave man, and the wicked will be esteemed as good

As for the soul, and the belief that it is immortal by nature, or may hope to

attain to immortality, as I have taught you

All this they will mock and even persuade themselves that it is false

Oh, Egypt, Egypt

Oh, Egypt, Egypt

Oh, Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale

Oh, Egypt, Egypt

Oh, Egypt, Egypt

Oh, Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale

No word of reverence or piety, no utterance worthy of heaven will be heard or

believed.

And so the gods will depart from mankind, a grievous thing

And only evil angels will remain, who will mingle with men, and drive the poor

wretches into all manner of reckless crime, into wars, and robberies,

and frauds, and all things hostile to the nature of the soul

Then will the earth tremble, and the sea bear no ships

Heaven will not support the stars in their orbits

All voices of the gods will be forced into silence

The fruits of the earth will rot, the soil will turn barren, and the very air

will sicken with sullen stagnation

All things will be disordered and awry

All good will disappear

But when all this has befallen, Asclepius

Then God, the creator of all things, will look on that which has come to pass,

and will stop the disorder by the counterforce of his will

Which is the good.

He will call back to the right path those who have gone

astray

He will cleanse the world of evil, washing it away with floods, burning it out

with the fiercest fire, and expelling it with war and pestilence

And thus he will bring back his world to its former aspect, so that the cosmos

will once more be deemed worthy of worship and wondering reverence, and God,

the maker and maintainer of the mighty fabric will be adored by the men of

that day with continuous songs of praise and blessing Such is the new birth of

the cosmos

It is a making again of all things good, a holy and awe-inspiring restoration

of all nature

And it is wrought

Inside the process of time

By the eternal will of the creator

Oh, Egypt, Egypt

Oh, Egypt, Egypt

Oh, Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale

Oh, Egypt, Egypt

Oh, Egypt, Egypt

Oh, Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale