Collected Poems by Anthony Burgess (best e ink reader for manga txt) 📕
Read free book «Collected Poems by Anthony Burgess (best e ink reader for manga txt) 📕» - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Anthony Burgess
Read book online «Collected Poems by Anthony Burgess (best e ink reader for manga txt) 📕». Author - Anthony Burgess
‘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
Comments (0)