Oh, rise up from the city of Cain,
City of loneliness, lying apart
In the shadowy depths of the land of Nod,
Land of wandering.
Rise up now, and fear not the darkness,
The dream-haunted darkness of Cain, the journey
From city to city in steady procession,
Cities past numbering:
Shushan, Babylon, Sodom,
Nineveh, Tyre, Damascus,
The path, rising steep into Nazareth and Bethlehem,
Ever ascending.
Oh, rise up from the frail bonds of matter,
The tenuous chains of hate and despair,
Of lust and of grief, of self-justification,
Whose claims seem unending.
Rise up now, for the night has no substance,
No chains to bind, no shackles to hold;
Pure is the light that dissolves that night,
All pain transcending.
The gentle light of the holy city—
Faultless, radiant—is yours, if you will,
In an instant, and the shadowy journey is nothing,
And the light all-pervading.
Here, where you are at this moment,
Is the fullness, the richness, the beauty of being,
The inexhaustible comfort of Love,
For the heart's hungering.
Oh, rise up from the city of Cain,
Enter now the city of God!
