Chapter VIII
O my love, you are lost. The Sun bows his face towards the Western mountains. You have forgotten the places of your beginning. You wander on the steeps and your feet are bathed in blood. You flee through the valleys and the gathering mist swallows you up, and the shadows claim you. The road is overgrown with thorns. The wild ass grazes in the thoroughfare. A thief in the night has stolen the marker stones. Twilight falls between you and the tribe of your father that went before your face. Their footsteps are swallowed up. Their voices have ceased to echo from the hills.
Abide with me this night and I will comfort you. Beneath the open sky I will give you shelter. Lie at the crossroads with your head upon my lap. White my thigh as the wing of the swan newly fledged, soft as the down that lines the nest of the waterfowl. Relinquish your cares of the day and I will soothe your brow with kisses. My tongue drips with the sweetness of the honeycomb. The lushness of the pomegranate that splits in its ripeness, even so my lips lie ripe upon your lips. Drink the wine from my mouth. My mouth is a chalice brimmed with the wine of desire. Become drunk upon my kisses, O lonely traveler.
Seek shelter beneath the archway of my thighs. My thighs are mighty pillars of alabaster that hold up the star-shot firmament. Refresh your tongue at the cooling fountains of my breasts. My breasts are distant snow-capped mountains from which tumble foaming torrents. Conceal your face amid the tangled thicket of my hair. My hair is a dense forest of fragrant spice trees. Hide yourself deep behind the strong gateway of my womb. My womb is the House of Holiness, yea, even the Holiest of Holies.
I am white and comely. My countenance shines with the pale light of the Moon in her splendor. Enter into my Secret Garden and lie within my bower. Stay with me, O my love. Give no heed to the passing of days. The seasons turn and fall like petals from the flower. The years roll away like clouds after the rain. Even when your span of life had ended, stay in my embrace. I will draw the soft blanket of the earth over you and lie beside you until the uttermost ceasing of the world.
Do not strive to rise up, my love. The long night has yet to end. I will not so soon be parted from the warmth of your breath. My arms cling around your chill neck even as the dew-wet strands of the spider hold the fluttering moth. My red lips stick with the sweetness of honey to your face. You are caught between the bow of my strong thighs. My matrix devours whole your swollen member like unto the serpent that swallows its prey still quick with life.
I am black and terrible of aspect. My eyes are quickened coals that smoulder with emerald fire in the caverns of my skull. Sharp my teeth like those of the dragon that crushes its foe in deadly embrace. Sharp my envenomed nails like the fangs of the viper that hisses. My lips are ruddy with clots of gore, my mouth drips with fresh blood, my forked tongue is as black as Death, the stench of carrion hangs on my breath, and the flies come and settle upon my cheeks. Jet my breasts like unto the hills of Gehenna. My thighs vast columns of ebony that extend down even to the very foundation stone of the Abyss. Leviathan coils his slimy length about them and makes his lair in my womb. It breeds serpents as does the putrid belly of the dead horse.
Seek not to flee, O my love. My arms restrain you with terrible strength. I bind you to my breast with the rank strands of my hair. I am the Jealous God. No other god shall lie with you. I am the Heavenly Harlot, the Queen of All Pleasures. No other lover shall ever please you. Your seed is the payment I exact for my whoredom. You are the source of my delight as the corpse delights the jackal in the desert. The screams that are born and die in your throat nourish my darkness. Your fear excites my lust. I will not cease to abuse you all the time that I love you. Nor can you ever be rid of me, for we are joined as one flesh under the dark face of the Moon. I cry out in the excess of my passions. My cries are like those of the bird that flies by night and screeches.
Fearful traveler, you sleep a sleep from which there is no awaking. You wander lost in a darkness that has no dawn. Resign your soul to my caresses and become drunk with the intoxication of my kiss. Verily I love you as no daughter of Eve can love you. You grow stronger in my lust than in the lust born of flesh. I teach you delightful sins unknown to humankind. The pleasures I give you are keener pleasures. The ways I open are deeper ways. Put aside vain regrets and forget the rosy glow of dawn. Make deaf your ears to the cock that crows. Nestle forever beneath the velvet shadow of my wing. My child, my flesh, my very own, how can you think I would forsake you?
