8.

An evil huntsman was I?  See how taut
               My bow was bent! 
Strongest was he by whom such bolt were sent—­
Woe now!  That arrow is with peril fraught,
Perilous as none.—­Have yon safe home ye sought!

9.

Ye go!  Thou didst endure enough, oh, heart;—­
                Strong was thy hope;
Unto new friends thy portals widely ope,
Let old ones be.  Bid memory depart! 
Wast thou young then, now—­better young thou art!

10.

What linked us once together, one hope’s tie—­
               (Who now doth con
Those lines, now fading, Love once wrote thereon?)—­
Is like a parchment, which the hand is shy
To touch—­like crackling leaves, all seared, all dry.

11.

Oh!  Friends no more!  They are—­what name for those?—­
                Friends’ phantom-flight
Knocking at my heart’s window-pane at night,
Gazing on me, that speaks “We were” and goes,—­
Oh, withered words, once fragrant as the rose!

12.

Pinings of youth that might not understand! 
                  For which I pined,
Which I deemed changed with me, kin of my kind: 
But they grew old, and thus were doomed and banned: 
None but new kith are native of my land!

13.

Midday of life!  My second youth’s delight! 
                  My summer’s park! 
Unrestful joy to long, to lurk, to hark! 
I peer for friends!—­am ready day and night,
For my new friends.  Come!  Come!  The time is right!

14.

This song is done,—­the sweet sad cry of rue
                  Sang out its end;
A wizard wrought it, he the timely friend,
The midday-friend,—­no, do not ask me who;
At midday ’twas, when one became as two.

15.

We keep our Feast of Feasts, sure of our bourne,
                 Our aims self-same: 
The Guest of Guests, friend Zarathustra, came! 
The world now laughs, the grisly veil was torn,
And Light and Dark were one that wedding-morn.