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)