Collected Poems by Anthony Burgess (best e ink reader for manga txt) 📕

immediate danger in mind?’ And Pharaoh:

‘War. Should there be war

With some alien people, might not these

Aliens in our midst join with our enemies.

Immediate danger. Let danger be always immediate.

It is a sound thesis. Let us defend ourselves

Before we are attacked.’ And another councillor:

‘Your divine majesty’s immediate orders?’

‘I specify nothing,’ Pharaoh said. ‘I say:

Deal wisely with them. Use – immediate wisdom.’

So immediate wisdom, in the dust of hooves

And the shine of metal, thundered into the sheep-shearing.

The pipe faltered and the song ceased and the dance,

Israelite mouths open in wonder and fear

As the captain in metal looked about him, taking his time,

Picking at length on one: ‘You. Yes, you. Your name?’

The man drew his wife and son and daughter to him, saying:

‘Amram. Of the tribe of Levi.’ And the captain:

‘Pay heed, Amram, of the tribe of Levi. You,

Your wife, your son, your daughter, your beasts and chattels,

All that is yours, these from this day stand confiscate

And are given up to the power of Egypt. In the name of

Horus the god, ruler of the world of the living

And of the dead.’ He signalled abruptly and

The ravaging began: the soldiers, going baaaaaah,

Herding the men and women and children like sheep

While the sheep ran bleating in disorder, foodstores trampled,

Tents fired, garments torn, and Amram cried: ‘Why? Why?’

And the grinning captain answered: ‘Immediate wisdom.’

Therefore did they set over them taskmasters

To afflict them with their burdens.

And they were set to build for Pharaoh treasure-cities,

And the names of the cities were Ra’amses and Pithom.

Amram was surprised, pushed down the dusty street

Of Pithom with wife and family, that the enslavement

Had already gone so far: Israelites

Of other tribes long-settled, ready to laugh

At a wavering old man, a newcomer, who cried out:

‘You can’t cram us in here like so many

Dates in a jar. We’re shepherds. We live on the

Open plains. Shut us up here and we’ll die.’ –

‘Oh no, not die,’ jabbed a soldier. ‘Work, you’ll work.’

Work, and a whip cracked. The quarters were overcrowded,

Suitable for slaves. Amram at the door, shy, said:

‘Jochebed, my wife, and my son Aaron and

Miriam my daughter, and I am Amram of the

Tribe of Levi.’ A woman said: ‘Woman of the

Tribe of Levi, help me to help yourselves to a

Little space. A very little.’ A blind old man

Groped through the noise and smells and dark towards Amram:

Ah, a good fresh smell of shepherd. Share this

Bit of bread with me, take it, go on. I’d say

That Egyptian food is good food, not that I

See much of it, not that I

See much. Near-blind and old, no good as a worker.

The workers get all. Where are you from then?’

Amram: ‘From the vale of Shefru.’ – ‘I’d say you were a

Liar. I’d say the tribe of Levi was

Never in Shefru.’ And Amram, patiently:

‘My father was Cheat, my father’s father was Levi.

Do you follow me? My father’s father was

Levi the son of Jacob.’ And the old man: ‘I’d

Say that was a possible story. Me and my family,

We’re from the tribe of Gad. But you’ll find a

Lot of the tribes all mashed together here –

Benjamin, Reuben, Zebulon – a lot of tribes and

All slaves. I’d say there was a sort of mystery in it,

The twelve tribes brought together at last. But in

Slavery, as it’s called. I’d say that he was

Laughing at us, it, if he exists that is, you know, the

Old one, older than me, the

God of Abraham, as they call him.‘Where the children were playing

There was a cry and a rattling of little stones

On the clay floor: Miriam, daughter of Amram,

Had pulled a necklace from the neck of an

Older girl, crying: ‘It’s sinful. To wear a thing like that.

An Egyptian thing.’ Tears and reproaches and the

Mothers and fathers stepping in, but Aaron grinned.

‘Grin, then,’ cried Miriam. ‘Grin in your slavery.

But he – ’ And she ran to her mother, putting her head

To her mother’s belly to hear the heartbeat within.

‘He would not grin, he – ’ A woman nodded and said:

‘So that’s the way of it. I wondered.’ And Jochebed:

‘I thought he would be born in Tabris, in the pastures.

We would have been there in three fullnesses of the moon,

At the forest of Nisim.’ – ‘He, you said. You seem sure.’

And the blind old man: ‘All babies are called

He before they’re born. And some of them

Afterwards too.’ He did not understand the laughter,

Turning his open mouth, like an eye, to the laughter.

Laughter in a place of slaves but in the place of

Royal divinity no laughter. Aromatic oil-lamps,

Shadows, effigies, a cross-legged scribe

Reading to the Pharaoh, Pharaoh cutting in to say:

‘The sons of the men of the sand. The name diminishes them.

But they are not diminished.’ Dutiful smiles

From the assembled councillors. ‘Continue reading.’

‘Majesty. They came from the land of Canaan,

Driven by famine and plague. In Egypt sought they

Grain and pasture, and behold they found them both.

Their sons and their sons’ sons grow fat and

Multiply in the houses of the lord of the house of

Life, the house of death. They multiply and are become

An immense multitude. In order that they may not,

In the event of war, unite with our enemies …’

The sentence unfinished, the stylus poised. Pharaoh:

‘So it is written, so shall our

Posterity read it. But the sentence is unfinished,

The stylus poised. Let me hear,’ and he looked at them, ‘wisdom.’

There was a pause. The head councillor said:

‘This present mode of oppression is clearly

Inefficacious. As I see it, the tribes of Israel,

Mingled together in slavery as they now are,

Lose each its special code of law and restraint.

Constrained from above, they are grown loose beneath.

Lechery, adultery, incest. They grow loose.

They grow. This zest for breeding – it is the mark of

An animal race. They couple like dogs of the desert.’

But the Pharaoh said, and they had to strain to hear him:

‘And we – we glory in stability, changelessness, power.

Along comes the god of death and says: Behold,

I am all these things. The sentence stands unfinished.

Let the sentence now be pronounced.’ The poised stylus

Dove to the tablet. ‘Every son that is born

Shall be cast into the river. But every daughter

Shall be saved alive.’ The scribe looked