Texts used in Tryptich  by Tarik O'Regan

I. THRENODY
 

When death takes off the mask, [we] will know one another,
though diverse liveries [we] wear here make [us] strangers. 

—William Penn (1644–1718)
   Some Fruits of Solitude In Reflections and Maxims (1682)

Tremblest thou when my face appears
To thee? Wherefore thy dreadful fears?
Be easy, friend; ’tis thy truest gain
To be far away from the sons of men.
I offer a couch to give thee ease:
Shall dreamless slumber so much displease?

—Muhammad Rajab Al-Bayoumi (dates unknown)
   Death Speaks, translated by Arthur J. Arberry (1950)

To see a World in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.

—William Blake (1757–1827)
    “Auguries of Innocence” (1808)

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
for [people] to dwell together in unity.

—Psalm 133, Bible (King James Version, 1611) 

II. AS WE REMEMBER THEM
 

In the rising of the sun and at its going down, we remember them.
In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter, we remember them.
In the opening buds and in the rebirth of spring, we remember them.
In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer, we remember them.
In the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn, we remember them.
When [we’re] weary and in need of strength, we remember them.
When [we’re] lost and sick at heart, we remember them.
So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are part of us,
As we remember them.

—Roland B. Gittelsohn (1910–1995) [adapted],
    Gates of Repentance: The New Union Prayerbook for the Days of Awe (1978) 

And the Heav’nly Quire stood mute,
And silence was in Heav’n.

—John Milton (1608–1684),
    Paradise Lost, Book III (1667)

III. FROM HEAVEN DISTILLED A CLEMENCY
 

Each shall arise in the place where their life [spirit] departs. 

—‘Bundahis-Bahman Yast’; Indian Bundahishn (ninth century) [adapted],
    Sacred Book of the East, Volume 5, translated by Edward W. West (1860)

[So] Why then should I be afraid? I shall die once again to rise an angel blest.

—‘Masnavi i ma’navi’; Mathwani of Jalalu’d’Din Rumi (13th century) [adapted],
    Masnavi i Ma’navi, Book III, translated by Edward H. Whinfield (1898)

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting.
And cometh from afar.

—William Wordsworth (1770–1850),
    “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” (1807)

Calm fell. From heaven distilled a clemency;
There was peace on earth, and silence in the sky.

—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928),
    “And There Was a Great Calm” (on the signing of the Armistice, 1918)