And 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 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 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 With that little theme I'll close with Thanks to you all (Audience applause fades)