In the silent hour of the night, as I lay half asleep,
my seven selves sat together and thus conversed in whispers:
First Self: Here, in this madman, I have dwelt all these years,
with naught to do but renew his pain by day
and recreate his sorrow by night.
I can bear my fate no longer, and now I must rebel.
Second Self: Yours is a better lot than mine, brother,
for it is given me to be this madman's joyous self.
I laugh his laughter and sing his happy hours,
and with thrice winged feet I dance his brighter thoughts.
It is I that would rebel against my weary existence.
Third Self: And what of me, the love-ridden self,
the flaming brand of wild passion and fantastic desires?
It is I the love-sick self who would rebel against this madman.
Fourth Self: I, amongst you all, am the most miserable,
for naught was given me but the odious hatred and destructive loathing.
It is I, the tempest-like self, the one born in the black caves of Hell,
who would protest against serving this madman.
Fifth Self: Nay, it is I, the thinking self,
the fanciful self, the self of hunger and thirst,
the one doomed to wander without rest
in search of unknown things and things not yet created;
it is I, not you, who would rebel.
Sixth Self: And I, the working self, the pitiful labourer,
who, with patient hands, and longing eyes,
fashion the days into images and give the formless elements
new and eternal forms--it is I, the solitary one,
who would rebel against this restless madman.
Seventh Self: How strange that you all would rebel against this man,
because each and every one of you has a preordained fate to fulfil.
Ah! could I but be like one of you, a self with a determined lot!
But I have none, I am the do-nothing self, the one who sits in the dumb, empty nowhere and nowhen, when you are busy re-creating life.
Is it you or I, neighbours, who should rebel?
When the seventh self thus spake the other six selves
looked with pity upon him but said nothing more;
and as the night grew deeper one after the other went to sleep
enfolded with a new and happy submission.
But the seventh self remained watching
and gazing at nothingness, which is behind all things.
