… Were we led all that way for

birth or death? There was a birth, certainly,

we had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,

but had thought they were different; this birth was

hard and bitter agony for us, like death, our death.

We returned to our places, these kingdoms,

But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation;

With an alien people clutching their gods,

I should be glad of another death.

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), The Journey of the Magi, 1952.