Hyperion to Bellarmin
Once I was happy, Bellarmin! Am I not still? Would I not be even if that hallowed moment when I first saw her had been the last?
I have seen it once, the one and only that my soul was seeking, and the consummation we project beyond the stars, that we defer until the
end of time, I’ve felt it in the here and now. It was here, the most high, in this cycle of human nature and of things, it was here!
I no longer ask where it is; it was in the world, it can return in the world, it’s in the world now, only more hidden. I no longer ask what it is; I’ve seen it, I’ve known it.
O you who seek the highest and the best, be it in the depths of knowledge, in the turmoil of action, in the darkness of the past, in the labyrinth of the future, in the graves or above the stars! do you know its name? the name of what is one and all?
Its name is beauty.
Did you know what you were seeking? I don’t yet know it, but I can sense it, the new kingdom of the new godhead, and rushing towards it lay hold of the others and carry them with me, like the river the rivers into the ocean.
And it was you, my love, who showed me the way! With you I began. They’re not worthy of words, the days when I didn’t yet know you —
O Diotima, Diotima, heavenly being!