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Death is nothing at all
I have only slipped away into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other
That we are still
Call me by my old familiar name
Speak to me in the easy way you always used
Put no difference into your tone
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
Laugh as we always laughed
At the little jokes we always enjoyed together
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was
Let it be spoken without effort
Without the ghost of a shadow in it
Life means all that it ever meant
It is the same as it ever was
There is absolute unbroken continuity
What is death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind
Because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you for an interval
Somewhere very near
Just around the corner
All is well.
Nothing is past; nothing is lost
One brief moment and all will be as it was before
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!
Canon Henry Scott-Holland (1847-1918)
Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral
‘The King of Terrors’, a sermon on death delivered in St Paul’s Cathedral on Whitsunday 1910, while the body of King Edward VII was lying in state at Westminster. It was published in Facts of the Faith in 1919.
A shortened version:
Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still ……
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you for an interval.
Somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well.
Or a shortened version in French:
Vous voyez tout est bien La mort n’est rien, je suis simplement pass’ dans la pi’ce ‘ c’t’. Je suis moi, vous ‘tes vous, Ce que nous ‘tions les uns pour les autres, nous le sommes toujours. Donnez-moi le nom que vous m’avez toujours donn’, Parlez-moi comme vous l’avez toujours fait, N’employez pas un ton solennel ou triste, Continuez ‘ rire de ce qui nous faisait rire ensemble, Priez, souriez, pensez ‘ moi, Que mon nom soit prononc’ comme il l’a toujours ‘t’, Sans emphase d’aucune sorte, sans trace d’ombre, La vie signifie tout ce qu’elle a toujours signifi’, Elle est ce qu’elle a toujours ‘t’. Le fil n’est pas coup’, simplement parce que je suis hors de votre vue. Je vous attends. Je ne suis pas loin, Juste de l’autre c’t’ du chemin. Vous voyez – tout est bien.
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