Psyche (Couperus)/Chapter 27
Psyche was alive again, soaring through the air, and felt so light and ethereal; pearl-whiter she was than ever, and naked.
And on her tender shoulders she felt two new wings fluttering . . . .!
She hovered away over her own dead body into a drifting cloud, a fragrant mist, which farther on she lost sight of; and light, white, and ethereal, she looked with wonder at her trampled corpse and laughed. . . .
Strange, clear, and childlike sounded her laugh in the cloud and vapoury fragrance. . . .
“Psyche!”
She heard her name, but so dazzled and astonished was she, that she did not see. Then the wind blew about her; the cloud moved, the fragrance ascended like incense, and she saw many like herself, restored to life, hovering in the fragrant cloud, and round her she distinguished the outlines of well-known faces.
“Psyche!”
She recognised the voice, deep bronze, but yet strange. And the wind blew about her and she saw a bright light before her, and recognised the Chimera!
“You promised me: once more!” exclaimed Psyche joyfully.
She threw herself on to his back, she clung to his mane, and he soared aloft.
“Where am I?” said Psyche. “Who am I? What has happened? And what is going on around me? Am I dead, or do I live? Chimera, how rarefied is the air! how high you ascend! Are you going to ascend higher, higher still? Why is everything so dazzlingly bright about us? Is that water, or air, or light? What strange element is this? Who are going up with us ethereal faces, ethereal forms? And what is the viol that is playing?
“I heard that once before. Then it sounded plaintively; now it has a joyous sound!
“Chimera, why is the air so full of joy here . . . .? Look! below us is the Kingdom of the Past.
“It lies in a little circle, and the castle is a .png)
The Kingdom of the Future
[To face p. 194
black dot. Chimera, where are you going so high? We have never been so high before. Chimera, what are those circles all round us, the splendour of which makes me giddy? Are those spheres? Do they get wider and wider? Oh, how wide they get, Chimera, how wide! How high it is here, how wide, how rarefied and how light is the air! I feel myself also so light, so ethereal! Am I dead . . . .? Chimera, look! I have two new wings, and I shine pearl-white all over. Do I not shine like a light? It is true I have been very sinful. But I was what I had to be! Is it good to be what we have to be? I do not know, Chimera: I have thought of neither good nor bad; I was only what I was. But tell me, who am I now, and what am I? And where are you taking me to, Chimera? You carry me so quietly, so safely; up and down go your wings, up and down. The stars are twinkling round us; around us whirl the spheres, and wider and wider they become . . .! How light, how ethereal! What is that I see on the horizon? Or is it not the horizon? Opal islands, aerial oceans . . . . O Chimera!!!! I see purple sands wrinkling far, far away, and round them foams a golden sea. . . . We saw that once before, but not as it is now! For then it was delusion, and now . . . .! The sands are growing more distinct; I see the ripple of the golden sea. . . . Chimera! What land is that? Is that the rainbow? Is that the land of happiness, and are you the king?”
“No, Psyche, I am not a king, and that Land . . . .”
“—And that Land . . . .?”
“Is . . . . the Kingdom of the Future!”
“The Future! the Future!! O Chimera, where are you taking me to? Will the Future not prove to be a delusion . . . .?”
“No, here is the Future. Here is the Land. Look at it well . . . . well. . . .”
“It is wider than the widest sphere, wider than anything I can think of. Where are the limits?”
“Nowhere.”
“How far and how wide is the widest sphere?”
“Immeasurably far, indescribably wide. . . .”
“And what stretches away round the widest sphere?”
“The unutterable, and the All, All! The . . . .” “The . . . .?”
“I know no names! On earth things are called by names; here not. . . .”
“Chimera . . . .! On the purple strand I see a town of light, palaces of light, gates of light. . . . Do beings of light dwell there . . .? Are these the fore-spheres of the farthest sphere . . . .? Is that the way through circles to . . . . the . . . .? Chimera, I see forms, I see the people of light!! O Chimera! Chimera!! They are beckoning us, they are waving to us! I see two of them: a form of majesty, and another, near him, of love! O Chimera! I know them!! That is my father, and that . . . . O joy, O joy! . . . . that is Eros! Eros! Quicker, Chimera annihilate the space which separates us; speed on, ply your wings faster away, away! Oh, faster, Chimera! Can you not go faster? You fly too slowly for me! You fly too slowly!! I can fly faster than you.”
She spread out her tender, light, butterfly wings; she rose above the breathless, winged horse, and . . . . she flew . . . .!
She glided over the Chimera’s head toward the strand, toward the city, toward the blessed spirits. There she saw her father, there she saw Eros—Eros, godlike and naked, with shining wings!
Round her the viol of joy played its joyous notes, as if all the spheres rejoiced together. In the divine light, the faces of the cherubim began to blossom like winged roses. . . .
She glided swiftly through the air to her father and Eros, and embraced them. She laughed when she saw the flaming Chimera approaching, because she could fly faster than he!
“Come!” cried Eros joyfully. And he wanted to take her to the gate, from whence sunbeams issued like a path of sunny gold: a path along which enraptured souls were going hand in hand. . . .
But the kingly shade stopped them for a moment, when they, Eros and Psyche, intoxicated with love, embraced each other. . . .
“Look!” said the shade. “Look down below. . . .”
They saw the Kingdom of the Past, with their glorified minds, lying visible, deep in the funnel of the spheres. They saw the castle, fallen to ruins, with a single tower still standing. They saw Astra, old, grey, and blind, sitting before her telescope, and gazing in vain. They saw her star flicker up for a moment with a bright and final light.
Then they saw Astra’s blind eyes . . . . see! Astra looked and beheld the land of light, and the little band of happy, loving, dear ones in their shining raiment. Then they heard Astra murmur: “There! there . . . . the Land . . . .! The . . . . Kingdom . . . . of . . . . the . . . . Future!!!”
And they saw her star extinguish:
She fell back dead. . . .
The viol of gladness trilled.