Epiphany: A Birth or A Death? Or A Life Again?

Greetings,

      T. S. Eliot takes up the theme of the Epiphany in his own usual, unusual way in the poem Journey of the Magi.  While I am certain he knew of the historical realities and context in which the birth of Jesus took place and choose to ignore them, his poem is prophecy and truth at a profound level, which speaks to each new generation and each new year. 

                        “A cold coming we had of it,

                        Just the worst time of the year

                        For a journey, and such a long journey:

                        The ways deep and the weather sharp,

                        The very dead of winter.”

                        And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,

                        Lying down in the melting snow.

                        There were times we regretted

                        The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

                        And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

                        Then the camel men cursing and grumbling

                        And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,

                        And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,

                        And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly

                        And the villages dirty and charging high prices:

                        A hard time we had of it.

                        At the end we preferred to travel all night,

                        Sleeping in snatches,

                        With the voices singing in our ears, saying

                        That this was all folly.

                        Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,

                        Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;

                        With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,

                        And three trees on the low sky.

                        And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.

                        Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,

                        Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,

                        And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.

                        But there was no information, and so we continued

                        And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon

                        Finding the place: it was (you may say) satisfactory.

                        All this was a long time ago, I remember,

                        And I would do it again, but set down,

                        This set down  

                        This: were we led all that way for

                        Birth or Death?  There was a Birth, certainly,

                        We had evidence and no doubt, I had seen birth and death,

                        But had thought they were different: this Birth was

                        Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

                        We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

                        But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

                        With an alien people clutching their gods.

                        I should be glad of another death.

      Let this sit with you.  Reread it, even if it is after Epiphany. 

Yours & His,

DED