English
FrançaisPhiladelphia, May 1892
A soul passing through the Portal stopped halfway and said to Life:
“What have you to offer me?”
Life answered:
“Sadness, incessant struggle, disappointments.
Then Silence and Night.”
The soul said to Death:
“And you, what have you to offer me?”
“I will give you at once what Life will grant you only at the end.”
The soul turned to Life:
“And if I live? And if I fight?”
“Others will live and fight after you. And their fights will be easier where you have fought.”
“But what good are their struggles?”
“They will make lighter the burden of all those who will be born to pain afterward and who will fight it in their turn.”
“But what have I to do with these others? Who are they then?”
“They are you.”
“And those who came before me, who are they?”
“They too are you.”
“The Silence and the Night would then have an end?”
“They will end in song and light.
And the pain will end in Peace
Since Death dies in me
While you pass from yourself to others
Let the light be overshadowed and the shadow illuminated
Choose!”
The soul, in tears, answered:
“I will live!”