Lightning's Light and Fire

 So would I die

As then I saw him die,

The friend, who like a god

Into my darkling youth

Threw lightning's light and fire:

Buoyant yet deep was he,

Yea, in the battle's strife

With the bright dancer's heart.

Amid the warriors

His was the lightest heart,

Amid the conquerors

His brow was dark with thought—

He was a fate poised on his destiny:

Unbending, casting thought into the past

And future, such was he.

Fearful beneath the weight of victory,

Yet chanting, as both victory and death

Came hand and hand to him.

Commanding even as he lay in death,

And his command that man annihilate.

So would I die

As then I saw him die,

Victorious and destroying.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE - The Last Desire