III.

 

NARRATOR
Among the ten trillion beams
A billion Bible scrolls are scored
In hieroglyphs among God’s amplitudes of worlds;
In alphabet multitudinous
Tongues which are not quite tongues
Sigh, sibilate, wonder, cry:
As Christ comes manifest from a thunder-crimsoned sky.

He walks upon the molecules of seas
All boiling stews of beast
All maddened broth and brew and rising up of yeast.
There Christ by many names is known.
We call him thus.
They call him otherwise.
His name on any mouth would be a sweet surprise.
He comes with gifts for all,

 

Here: wine and bread.
There: nameless foods
At breakfasts where the morsels fall from stars
And Last Suppers are doled forth with stuff of dreams.
So sit they there in times before the Man is crucified.
Here He has long been dead.
There He has not yet died.
Yes, still unsure, and all being doubt,
Much frightened man on Earth does cast about
And clothe himself in steel
And borrow fire
And himself in the great glass of the careless
Void admire.
Man builds him rockets
And on thunder strides
In humble goings-forth
And most understandable prides.
Fearing that all else slumbers,
That ten billion worlds lie still,
We, grateful for the Prize and benefit of life,
Go to offer bread and harvest wine; 
The blood and flesh of Him we Will
To other stars and worlds about those stars.

 

CHORUS
In this time of Christmas
This holy time of Christmas
We name ourselves for Christ
We name ourselves for God.

 

We cargo holy flesh
On stranger visitations,
Send forth angelic hosts,
To farflung worlds
To tell our walking on the waters of deep Space,
Arrivals, swift departures
Of most miraculous man
Who, God fuse-locked in every cell
Beats holy blood
And treads the tidal flood
And ocean shore of Universe.

 

MEZZO-SOPRANO
A miracle of fish
We father, gather, build and strew
In metals to the winds
That circle Earth and wander Night beyond all Nights.

 

CHORUS
In this time of Christmas
This holy time of Christmas

 

MEZZO-SOPRANO
We soar, all arch-angelic, fire-sustained
In vast cathedral
Of constellations all blind dazzlement.

 

CHORUS
Christ is not dead
Nor does God sleep
While waking Man
Goes striding on the Deep

 

La troisième partie, toujours introduite par la narration d’Anthony Hopkins, permet à un choeur de femmes de développer une phrase mélodique sur ‘In this time of Christmas’, toujours associé à l’idée de Noël. L’événement de la naissance du Christ permet à Goldsmith de développer le thème de 12 sons introduit par les chœurs et repris dans son intégralité par l’orgue en contrepoint du chœur. Cette troisième partie évoque davantage l’idée de l’exploration spatiale par l’Homme, s’apparentant ici à une sorte de quête métaphysique pour le créateur de l’univers. L’orgue devient plus présent, ainsi que les chœurs, souvent accompagnés par diverses percussions. On retrouve le thème sériel de Noël qui conclut d’ailleurs la partie sur les mots ‘Goes striding on the Deep’, affirmant que le Christ n’est pas mort et que Dieu est toujours présent sous la forme de l’Homme (idée un brin provocatrice empruntée à la Bible, qui affirme que Dieu a crée l’Homme à son image).

 

IV.

 

NARRATOR
To birth ourselves anew
And love rebirth
From fear of straying long
On outworn Earth.
One harvest in, we broadcast seed for further reaping.
Thus ending Death
And Night,
And Time’s demise,
And senseless weeping.

We seek for mangers in the Pleides
Where man the god-fleshed wandering babe
May lay him down with such as these
Who once drew round and worshipped innocence.

New Mangers lie waiting!
New Wise men Descry
Our hosts of machineries
Which write immortal life
And sign it God!
Down, down Alien skies.
And flown and gone, arrived and bedded safe to sleep
Upon some winters morning deep
Ten billion years of light
From where we stand us now and sing,
There will be time to cry eternal gratitudes
Time to know and see and love the Gift of Life itself,
Always diminished,

Always restored,
Out of one hand and into the other
Of the Lord.
Then wake we in that far lost
Nightmare keep of Beast
And see our star recelebrated in an East
Beyond all Easts.
Beyond a snowdrift sifting down of stars.
In this time of Christmas
Think on that Morn ahead!

For this let all your fears, your cries,
Your tears, your blood and prayers be shed!
All numb and wild one day
You shall be reborn
And hear the Trump break forth from rocket-trembled air
All humbled, all shorn
Of pride, but free of despair.
Now listen! Now hear!
It is the Ninth Day’s morn!

Christ is risen!
God survives
Gather, Universe!
Look, ye stars!
In the exultant countries of Space
In a sudden simple pasture
Far beyond Andromeda!
O Glory, Glory, a New Christmas
Torn
From the very pitch and rim of Death,
Snatched from his universal grip,
His teeth, his most cold breath!

 

Under a most strange sun
O Christ, O God,
O man breathed out of most incredibles stuffs,
You are the Savior’s Savior,
God’s pulse and heart companion,
You! The Host He lifts
On high to consecrate;
His dear need to know and touch and cry wonders
At Himself.

 

CHORUS
In this time of Christmas
Know yourself most rare!

 

MEZZO-SOPRANO
Behold the rockets, more than chaff, on air,
All seed that save a holy seed
And cast it everywhere in mindless Dark.
You are the spark
That lights the Universe.

 

CHORUS
In this time of Christmas
Know yourself most rare

 

MEZZO-SOPRANO
You must go there.
In the long winter of Space
And lie you down in grateful innocence.

 

CHORUS
O God, far-motionning
O God-of-many-fleshed made one,
Leave Earth !

 

MEZZO-SOPRANO
God Himself cries out.
He Goes to Prepare the Way
For your rebirth
And call you thus

HORUS
Christus Apollo!

NARRATOR
Listen. The sound of it!

CHORUS
Christus Apollo !

 

NARRATOR & ORCHESTRA
How can you stay ?
How for one breath linger,
Wonder, stand, give Pause!
Put Earth away with All its Laws
Man! Christ! Now Go! Now Follow!

 

CHORUS
It is the Time of Going Away.
Welcome the Ninth Day’s Morn
Arise! Be Born !
Give voice, Give Praise
Rejoice!
Christus Apollo !

 

NARRATOR
Christus Apollo !

 

Cette quatrième et dernière partie célèbre enfin l’avenue du « neuvième jour », l’Homme sauveur sous les traits du Christ Apollon venu des étoiles. On y retrouve ici aussi le thème sériel de Noël et un ton encore plus chaotique et brutal que les parties précédentes.

Curieusement, Goldsmith tempère l’optimisme et l’idée de promesse et de réjouissance du texte par un langage harmonique toujours aussi heurté et un contrepoint assez brutal. C’est donc en toute logique que les derniers mots de l’œuvre sont ceux du narrateur, ‘Christus Apollo’, concluant cette œuvre métaphysique complexe en toute quiétude.