قراءة كتاب Jeremiah: A Drama in Nine Scenes

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‏اللغة: English

Jeremiah: A Drama in Nine Scenes

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المؤلف:

Zweig Stefan

دار النشر: Project Gutenberg

الصفحة رقم: 3

work.

Jeremiah

Not now the time for beginnings. The end draws nigh.

The Mother

It is time! It is time! Long since have you grown to manhood. The house has need of a wife, and of children to raise up seed to your father.

Jeremiah

[In bitter distress] Lead a wife home to desolation? Beget children for the slaughter? In sooth, it is not the bridal hour that approaches!

The Mother

I do not understand.

Jeremiah

Shall I build a house in the abyss? Shall I build my life in death? Shall I sow corruption, and sing the praises of disaster? I say unto you, Mother, blessed is he whose heart is now free from ties to the living, for whosoever breathes this day is already drinking the waters of death.

The Mother

What mad fancy has seized you? When were the times more propitious? When was the land more peaceful?

Jeremiah

No, Mother, the fools say: Peace, Peace. But their words do not bring peace. They lie down to sleep unheeding, and as they sleep they are on their way to death. A time is coming such as Israel has never yet known, a war such as the world has never yet seen. The living will covet the peace of the dead in their graves, and those who can see will envy the darkness with which the blind are stricken. Not yet can the fools see, not yet is it manifest to the dreamers; but I have beheld it night after night. Higher leap the flames, nearer comes the foe; the day of tumult and destruction is at hand; war’s red star is rising on the night.

The Mother

[Greatly moved] How know you these things?

Jeremiah

A word has come to me in secret,
For I have seen faces in the night,
I have wandered in my dreams.
Fear and dread fell upon me,
I trembled in every limb,
And like a crumbling wall
My heart fainted within me.
Mother,
Such sights have I seen,
That, if they were written,
Men’s hair would stand on end,
And sleep would depart from them
For ever.

The Mother

Jeremiah, what do you mean?

Jeremiah

The end draweth near; the end!
Evil appeareth out of the north,
Fire is its chariot,
Massacre its pinions!
Already the heavens ring with terror,
The earth shakes with the stamping of the hoofs.

The Mother

[Horrified] Jeremiah!

Jeremiah

[Seizing her arm, listens] Do you hear, do you not hear, the rushing of chariots?

The Mother

I hear nothing! Day is dawning. The shepherds are piping in the valleys, and a gentle breeze blows across the roof.

Jeremiah

A gentle breeze?
Woe is me!
With mighty roaring
The wind is rising,
The whirlwind of God.
From the caverns
Of the north down-rushing,
Terror it brandishes
Over the town.
Mother! Mother! Do you not hear it?
 
Swords clash in the wind,
Loud roar the chariot wheels,
The night flashes with lances and with armor;
Warrior upon warrior, countless in number,
The whirlwind scatters over the land.

The Mother

All is illusion, the madness of dreams!

Jeremiah

They are coming, they are coming,
Strangers from the east,
Men of an ancient people,
Men of a mighty people.
They hasten from the east
In unending files;
Their arrows speed like lightning;
Their chargers are shod with swiftness;
Their chariots are solid as rock.
Among them there rideth,
With blood-stained crown,
The destroyer of cities
By fire and sword,
The tyrant of nations,
The king of kings from the north.

The Mother

The king from the north? You dream. The king from the north!

Jeremiah

Whom the Lord has awakened
That he may scourge the people for all its transgressions,
That he may crumble the walls and throw down the towers,
That he may quench the light and the laughter of homes,
That he may raze the city and the temple to the ground,
And that he may plough up the streets of Jerusalem.

The Mother

Blasphemous folly! The city endureth for ever!

Jeremiah

It is falling!
The onslaughts of God
None may withstand!
Below ground
Its roots shall wither,
Above ground
Its fruits shall rot!
With axe and with fire
The horsemen shall ravage
Israel’s forest and Zion’s fair plains.

The Mother

[Breaking in] It is false!
Ne’er shall an enemy circle our wall,
David’s city be taken, Jerusalem fall.
Though foes from the ends of the earth should rage,
 
The towering battlements ever shall stand.
Firm Israel’s heart, and mighty her hand,
Eternal the days of Jerusalem!

Jeremiah

It is falling! Broken is the staff and foretold is the hour. The end draws

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