THE DRUNKEN SONG 473
friends, if ye did, ye have also said Yea unto all woe. All things are chained, knotted, in love.
If ye ever wanted to have one time twice, if ye ever said : ' Thou pleasest me, O happiness, O in- stant, O moment ! ye wished everything to come back ! '
Everything anew, everything eternal, everything chained, knotted, in love. Oh ! thus ye loved the world !
Ye eternal ones, ye love it eternally and for all time. And even unto woe ye say : ' Pass, go, but return ! For eternity s sought by all delight ! '
II
Eternity of all things is sought by all delight. Honey, lees, drunken midnight, graves, comfort of tears at graves, gilded evening red, are sought by it.
What is not sought by delight ! It is thirstier, heartier, hungrier, more dreadful, more familiar than all woe. It seeketh itself, it biteth into itself. The will of the ring struggleth in it.
It seeketh love ; it seeketh hatred ; it is over-rich ; it giveth ; it throweth away ; it beggeth, that one may take it ; it thanketh him who taketh ; it would fain be hated.
So rich is delight, that it thirsteth for me, for. hell, for hatred, for shame, for the cripple, for world, for this world ! Oh, ye know it !
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