Lament Of Hermes

[Verse 1]
Do you know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of heaven?
Or, to speak more exactly
In Egypt, all the operations of the powers
Which rule and work in heaven
Are present in the Earth below
In fact, it should be said
That the whole cosmos dwells in this, our land
As in a sanctuary
And yet, since it is fitting
That wise men should have knowledge of all events
Before they come to pass
You must not be left in ignorance of what I will now tell you

[Verse 2]
There will comе a time when it will have been in vain
That Egyptians havе honored the Godhead
With heartfelt piety and service
And all our holy worship will be fruitless and ineffectual
The gods will return from Earth to heaven
Egypt will be forsaken
And the land which was once the home of religion
Will be left desolate
Bereft of the presence of its deities

[Chorus]
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale

[Verse 3]
Which thine own children, in time to come, will not believe
Nothing will be left but graven words
And only the stones will tell of thy piety
And in that day, men will be weary of life
And they will cease to think the universe worthy
Of reverent wonder and worship
They will no longer love this world around us
This incomparable work of God
This glorious structure which he has built
This sum of good, made up of many diverse forms
This instrument, whereby the will of God operates
In that which he has made
Ungrudgingly favoring man's welfare
This combination and accumulation
Of all the manifold things that call forth
The veneration, praise, and love of the beholder
Darkness will be preferred to light
And death will be thought more profitable than life
No one will raise his eyes to heaven
The pious will be deemed insane
The impious, wise
The madman will be thought a brave man
And the wicked will be esteemed as good
As for the soul, and the belief that it is immortal by nature
Or may hope to attain to immortality, as I have taught you
All this they will mock
And even persuade themselves that it is false

[Chorus]
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale

[Verse 4]
No word of reverence or piety
No utterance worthy of heaven will be heard or believed
And so the gods will depart from mankind, a grievous thing
And only evil angels will remain
Who will mingle with men
And drive the poor wretches into all manner of reckless crime
Into wars, and robberies, and frauds
And all things hostile to the nature of the soul
Then will the earth tremble, and the sea bear no ships
Heaven will not support the stars in their orbits
All voices of the gods will be forced into silence
The fruits of the earth will rot, the soil will turn barren
And the very air will sicken with sullen stagnation
All things will be disordered and awry
All good will disappear

[Instrumental]

[Verse 5]
But when all this has befallen, Asclepius
Then, God, the creator of all things
Will look on that which has come to pass
And will stop the disorder by the counterforce of his will
Which is the Good
He will call back to the right path those who have gone astray
He will cleanse the world of evil
Washing it away with floods
Burning it out with the fiercest fire
And expelling it with war and pestilence
And thus he will bring back his world to its former aspect
So that the cosmos will once more
Be deemed worthy of worship and wondering reverence
And God, the maker and maintainer of the mighty fabric
Will be adored by the men of that day
With continuous songs of praise and blessing
Such is the new birth of the cosmos
It is a making again of all things good
A holy and awe-inspiring restoration of all nature
And it is wrought
Inside the process of time
By the eternal will of the creator

[Chorus/Outro]
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Oh, Egypt, Egypt
Of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale