Die Bruderschaft Des Schmerzes

By a route obscure and lonely, haunted by ill angels only,

Where an eidolon named "night", on a black throne

Reigns upright,

I have reached these lands but newly, from an

Ultimate dim thule.

From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,

Out of space, out of time.

Bottomless wales and boundless floods, and chasms

And caves, and titan woods, with forms that no

Man can discover for the tears that drip all over,

Mountains topling evermore into seas

Without a shore

Seas that restlessly aspire, surging into

Skies of fire.

Lakes that endlessly outspread their lone waters,

Lone and dead.

Their still waters, still and chilly with the snows

Of the lolling lilly.

By the lakes that thus outspread their lone water,

Lone and dead.

Their sad waters, sad and chilly with the snows of the

Lolling lilly, by the mountains, near the river

Murmuring slowly, murmuring ever -

By the grey woods, by the swamp where the toad

And the newt encamp,

By the dismal tarns and pools where dwell

The ghouls, by each spot that most unholy,

In each nook most melancholy,

There the traveller meets, aghast, sheeted

Memories of the past,

Shrouded forms that start and sigh as they pass

The wanderer by, white-robed forms of friends

Long given, in agony, to earth and heaven.

For the heart whose woes are legion this is peaceful,

Soothing region, for the spirit that walks

In shadows this is, oh, this is eldorado!

Bid the traveller, travelling through it, may not

Dare not opening view it

Never its mysteries are exposed to the weak

Human eye unclosed,

So will its king who hath forbid the uplifting

Of the frigid lid, and thus the sad soul

That here passes beholds it but through

Darkened glasses.

By a route obscure and lonely, haunted by

Ill angels only, where an eidolon, named

"night", on a black throne reigns

Upright, i have wandered home but newly

From an ultimate dim thule.

Dreamland...