Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1963, Page 95

know thyself
77
Butterfly: Firefly was found in the
waterfall this morning.
Worm: ?
Butterfly: She had wandered off the
bridge leading across the border,
fallen into the waterfall, and died.
^orm (cries out): Oh!
Butterfly: Every hair on her head
Was weeping. It was like golden hair
weeping silver tears.
Worm (as if finding his bearings
and growing calmer): This is a
terrible dream all the same.
Butterfly: But this dream is real.
Worm: That is true, dream is
reality.
Butterfly: You have only awaked
to consciousness of yourself in the
Vegetable garden.
Silence.
^orm: Unintentionally and un-
'vittingly I have passed happiness
by while awake, but in sleep, after
Firefly’s death, I have come to the
realization that my happiness is
where she is. Now I can find happi-
ness only beyond the border of life
and death. There in an orchard Fire-
fiy awaits me, performing a sun
hance to the warbling of night-
|ngales. A love engendered by Death
is everlasting, for Death spares that
which he himself has given life.
Butterfly: In the sight of God I shall
n°t have atoned for my trans-
gressions until I have helped to
^iake you well and have guided you
acr°ss the waterfall.
Worm: As far as I am concerned,
J'Ou have atoned for your trans-
gressions. What I did to enable you
to make amends, I did for my own
sake. A just God expects us either
to pay each other our legitimate
debts or to release each other from
them; but He levies no tax on our
debts, for He claims nothing for
Himself.
Butterfly: I shouldn’t have told you
the truth, that Firefly is dead.
Worm: He who is guided into all
truth knows the Lord.
Butterfly: Were you to die, I should
be the cause of your death. If all
truth were revealed, all men would
die at once. If you died, I should be
unhappy. If that very truth were
revealed to you, how could you be
happy? You wouldn’t find happiness
after death unless the Lord let you
forget everything which has happen-
ed to you 'here and unless He con-
cealed from you everything which
goes on here. But if the Lord were to
do so, He would not be a truth which
you would recognize.
Worm: I am already in the state
intermediate between sleeping here
and waking on the other side of
death.
Butterfly (looking at him): He has
lapsed into a coma. Either life has to
last long enough for him to remove
any obstacle to his finding happiness
on the other side, or else his death
will have to be more than death—not
just death of the body but also to a
certain extent the death of the soul;
in other words, an end to the
awareness of the distress of those
who survive. If death is anything but
that, Worm is not ready to die.
Worm, wake up! (Shakes him.) I
can’t awaken him. Somebody has