Versos English Richard Francis Burton Jehannum, Gehenna, Hell

English poem

Jehannum, Gehenna, Hell

by (1821–1890)

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And if your Heav’en and Hell be true, and Fate that forced me to be born Force me to Heav’en or Hell—I go, and hold Fate’s insolence in scorn.

I want not this, I want not that, already sick of Me and Thee; And if we’re both transform’d and changed, what then becomes of Thee and Me?

Enough to think such things may be: to say they are not or they are Were folly: leave them all to Fate, nor wage on shadows useless war.

Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause; He noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self-made laws.

All other Life is living Death, a world where none but Phantoms dwell, A breath, a wind, a sound, a voice, a tinkling of the camel-bell.