THEY WERE ONE

I’ve been reading
Recently
A great many medieval works
And these involve, particularly in the Arthurian romance and so forth
Knights in combat with each other
Fiercely in combat
With complete respect for each other
Even
Love for each other
And there is one wonderful line
In Wolfram von Eschenbach
When two
Brothers
Who didn't know they were brothers
Were in combat
One was a Christian
And the other was a Mohammedan
They were in combat
And Wolfram says
If one wished to think of it that one that way, one could say that they were two
Battling
But they have the same father

And they are one

[Chorus]
And they are one
Battling himself
Out of loyalty
Out of honor
And they are one
Battling himself
And doing himself
Much harm

But that is the tragic sense
As I say
Life begins, and that’s the first thing the eye sees
Life eating itself
Killing
But that’s life
And the reconciliation
Of consciousness
Which revolts from this
To that
And its affirmation
That is the song of mythology
It has been
It is the song of the religions
And with that little
Affirmative theme
The affirmation of life
As is
I would say
We have the key
To
The
Hopping up
The stepping up
The invigorating of life
Which has been the function actually, the first function
Of mythology
From the time
The old cave men
Asked the bear
To give its body
For their life
For their life

[Chorus]
And they are one
Battling himself
Out of loyalty
Out of honor
And they are one
Battling himself
And doing himself
Much harm
And they are one
Battling himself
Out of loyalty
Out of honor
And they are one
Battling himself
And doing himself
Much harm

[Bridge]

With that little theme
I’ll close with
Thanks to you all
(audience applause fades)