Novalis

Hymn

Very few listen
To the secret of love,
Feel the unquenchable
Undying thirst!
The Supper
Hath a heavenly meaning
Passing the understanding of the senses.
Yet whosoever
From hot and dearest lips
Hath drunken breath of life:
Whose heart the holy glow
Hath ever melted into tremulous floods --
Whose gaze hath risen
Even to heaven,
Plumbing its fathomlessness,
Will eat of his body
And drink of his blood
Everlastingly.
How few have guessed
The holy meaning of the earthly body!
Who dares
To say he understands blood?
One day -- all body --
One body . . .
A blissful pair
Swimming in heavenly blood --
O! that earth's pale seas
Were flushing now
And into our odour-dropping flesh
These rocks were passing!
Fair never-ending meal!
For love can never take enough.
Nearer!  More in me!  More mine own,
Beloved!
By softer, ever tenderer lips
The elements are  changed
Inwarder -- nearer --
Fiercer and fiercer longing
Thrills through the soul:
Thirstier and hungrier
Grows the heart.
So must love's banquet last
From eternity to eternity
Had the abstemious
Only tasted,
All would they leave
And would sit down with us
To the table of love-longing
That never is bare.
They would hail love's magic bounty
And praise their commons
Of body and blood.