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قراءة كتاب The Epic of Saul
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اللغة: English
الصفحة رقم: 4
rising zeal once more the master checked:
"Praying is doing, likewise waiting works;
But what, son Saul, is in thine heart to do?
I cherished better dreams, my son, for thee,
Than to behold thee leading to their doom
One helpless, hopeless, hapless company more,
Insurgent out of season against Rome,
Confederate sons of folly and of crime!"
Rebuke like this Saul brooked it ill to hear;
With filial sweet resentment he replied:
"And cherish other dreams, I pray thee, father!
No man-at-arms am I to challenge Rome;
Though not even Rome should daunt me, called of God
To front her with but pebble from the brook,
Like David, in her plenitude of power.
Rome rules us, and I grieve, but I rejoice:
I grieve that we are such as must be ruled,
And cannot rule ourselves; but I rejoice,
Since such we are, that we are ruled by Rome.
The strongest and the wisest is the best
To serve, if one must serve. Alas, my country!
Her face is in the dust because her heart
Grovels, and therefore on her neck the heel.
So, not to rid us of the Roman, I
Labor with this desire, but to erect
The dustward spirit of my countrymen.
This people knowing not the law are cursed!"
With filial sweet resentment he replied:
"And cherish other dreams, I pray thee, father!
No man-at-arms am I to challenge Rome;
Though not even Rome should daunt me, called of God
To front her with but pebble from the brook,
Like David, in her plenitude of power.
Rome rules us, and I grieve, but I rejoice:
I grieve that we are such as must be ruled,
And cannot rule ourselves; but I rejoice,
Since such we are, that we are ruled by Rome.
The strongest and the wisest is the best
To serve, if one must serve. Alas, my country!
Her face is in the dust because her heart
Grovels, and therefore on her neck the heel.
So, not to rid us of the Roman, I
Labor with this desire, but to erect
The dustward spirit of my countrymen.
This people knowing not the law are cursed!"
By instinct wise of policy unmeant,
Saul, in his last half-maledictory words
Of vehement passion edged with bitterness,
Had struck a chord that answered in the breast
Of the habitual teacher of the law.
"Yea," said Gamaliel, "now art thou true son
And utterest wisdom. Make them know the law.
With both my hands I bless thee speaking thus.
The law shall save them, if they know the law."
Saul, in his last half-maledictory words
Of vehement passion edged with bitterness,
Had struck a chord that answered in the breast
Of the habitual teacher of the law.
"Yea," said Gamaliel, "now art thou true son
And utterest wisdom. Make them know the law.
With both my hands I bless thee speaking thus.
The law shall save them, if they know the law."
Saul knew it was Gamaliel's wont that spoke,
His life-long wont of reverence for the law
And trust in its omnipotence to serve
Whatever need befell his nation—this,
Rather than any fresh, fair-springing sense
Of hope in him auxiliar to his own.
Yet, in despair of better heartening now,
And self-impelled to ease his laboring mind,
He, fixed and faltering both, with courteous phrase
Premised of teachable assent sincere
To smooth somewhat thereto his doubtful way,
Frankly a hearing for his counsel sought:
"I ever heard thee, father, teaching that,
And I believe it wholly, mind and heart;
But something now I did not learn from thee,
Hearken, I pray, and weigh if it be wise."
His life-long wont of reverence for the law
And trust in its omnipotence to serve
Whatever need befell his nation—this,
Rather than any fresh, fair-springing sense
Of hope in him auxiliar to his own.
Yet, in despair of better heartening now,
And self-impelled to ease his laboring mind,
He, fixed and faltering both, with courteous phrase
Premised of teachable assent sincere
To smooth somewhat thereto his doubtful way,
Frankly a hearing for his counsel sought:
"I ever heard thee, father, teaching that,
And I believe it wholly, mind and heart;
But something now I did not learn from thee,
Hearken, I pray, and weigh if it be wise."
But less like one who hearkened as to weigh
A counsel shown, Gamaliel now to Saul
Seemed, than like one who sat behind a shield
In opposition, a broad shield of brow
Immobile, placid, large circumference,
And orb of diamond proof, between them hung
There on the housetop still in dim twilight,
Ready to quench in darkness any ray
Of word or sign from him that should aspire
To reach an understanding guarded so—
Such to Saul seemed Gamaliel now, while yet,
Despite, repressed but irrepressible,
That strenuous strong spirit thus went on:
"Deeply I have desired to know my time
And not to waste my strength beating the air.
Are not men's needs other with other times?
No more perhaps in peaceful shelters now
Sacred to sacred studies, synagogue
Retirements, where our doctors of the law
Propose in turn their sage conclusions, heard
By questioning disciples—here perhaps
No more is truth most truly taught to men.
Some, it may be, might well go forth to stand
Even at the corners of the streets and cry.
Folly amain preaches to gaping crowds,
And shall not wisdom cry? My heart is hot,
Amid the multitude they make their prey,
To meet these false proclaimers to their face,
And stop their mouths, with Moses and with all
The prophets and the Psalms, from uttering lies."
A counsel shown, Gamaliel now to Saul
Seemed, than like one who sat behind a shield
In opposition, a broad shield of brow
Immobile, placid, large circumference,
And orb of diamond proof, between them hung
There on the housetop still in dim twilight,
Ready to quench in darkness any ray
Of word or sign from him that should aspire
To reach an understanding guarded so—
Such to Saul seemed Gamaliel now, while yet,
Despite, repressed but irrepressible,
That strenuous strong spirit thus went on:
"Deeply I have desired to know my time
And not to waste my strength beating the air.
Are not men's needs other with other times?
No more perhaps in peaceful shelters now
Sacred to sacred studies, synagogue
Retirements, where our doctors of the law
Propose in turn their sage conclusions, heard
By questioning disciples—here perhaps
No more is truth most truly taught to men.
Some, it may be, might well go forth to stand
Even at the corners of the streets and cry.
Folly amain preaches to gaping crowds,
And shall not wisdom cry? My heart is hot,
Amid the multitude they make their prey,
To meet these false proclaimers to their face,
And stop their mouths, with Moses and with all
The prophets and the Psalms, from uttering lies."
Gamaliel heard, and like a lion stood,
That shakes his dewy mane from slumber roused;
The old man loomed in action nobly tall,
As thus, with weighty gesture, in a voice
Solid with will, he gently, sternly spoke:
"Nay, Saul, my son, thy zeal misguides thee now—
Thy zeal, and peradventure some conceit
Of wisdom wiser than thine elders. Thou,
Consenting thus to parley with the fool
According to his folly, like becomest.
This is a time to answer otherwise
Than with the wind of words against their words
Of wind, as equal against equal matched.
Those wresters of the law must feel the law
Smiting their mouths shut with the heavy hand.
With blows, not words, vain fools like these are taught.
Go thou thy way, to-morrow shalt thou see
Hap other far than that thou hast devised
Befall those evil men of Galilee.
Our chiefly prudent, watchful for our weal,
Will stop their mouths profane and make an end."
That shakes his dewy mane from slumber roused;
The old man loomed in action nobly tall,
As thus, with weighty gesture, in a voice
Solid with will, he gently, sternly spoke:
"Nay, Saul, my son, thy zeal misguides thee now—
Thy zeal, and peradventure some conceit
Of wisdom wiser than thine elders. Thou,
Consenting thus to parley with the fool
According to his folly, like becomest.
This is a time to answer otherwise
Than with the wind of words against their words
Of wind, as equal against equal matched.
Those wresters of the law must feel the law
Smiting their mouths shut with the heavy hand.
With blows, not words, vain fools like these are taught.
Go thou thy way, to-morrow shalt thou see
Hap other far than that thou hast devised
Befall those evil men of Galilee.
Our chiefly prudent, watchful for our weal,
Will stop their mouths profane and make an end."
Saul chode his tongue to silence, but his heart
Set stern in resolution touched with pride,
As, after decent pause, he took farewell.
Set stern in resolution touched with pride,
As, after decent pause, he took farewell.
The master and the pupil parted thus,
And both were blind to that which was
And both were blind to that which was