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

ram with knives, then firing the flesh

On the altar, an abomination before the Lord,

Balaam was dragged, under guard, forcibly enrobed

And ordered by the king himself to curse, but he could not.

Now, Balaam. Beg of our god what I beg of you.

A curse on the Israelites. But he could not.

Instead he spoke, as it seemed, for some not present:

‘Balak the king has brought me to this high place

Before the idol Ba’al. And he has said:

Come, curse Israel, curse the blood of Jacob.

But how shall I curse whom God has not cursed? How

Defy whom the Lord has not defied? From the top

Of the rocks I see him, and from the hills

I behold him. Let me die the death of the righteous

Before I curse Israel and the God of Israel.’

The king wept aloud: ‘What have you done to me?

I took you to curse my enemies: behold, you bless them.’

And Balaam said: ‘The Lord God is not a man,

That he should lie, neither the son of man,

That he should repent. Has he said, and shall he not do it?

Has he spoken and shall he not make it good?

Behold, I have received commandment to bless and I cannot

Reverse it.’ At the king’s sign he was led away,

Crying out: ‘God brought them out of Egypt.

His strength is the strength of the unicorn. Behold,

The people shall rise up as a great lion,

And lift themselves up as a young lion.’ They imprisoned him,

Manacled him to a wall, with serpents about,

Toads and scorpions, and thonged whips ready.

The king, troubled, said: ‘If you will not curse them,

Then at least do not bless them. Let us have you

Neutral in the fight that is to come.’

But Balaam said: ‘I shall see him, though not now.

I shall behold him, but not nigh. There shall come

A star out of Jacob, and a sceptre

Shall rise out of Israel and shall smite

The corners of Moab and all the children of Midian.’

The king struck him in the face, twice, thrice,

But Balaam cried: ‘Moab shall be a possession,

And Israel shall do valiantly.’ The king, in disgust

Said: ‘Loosen his chains. Let the madman go.

Send him out into the wilderness,

On that talking donkey of his.’ And they did so.

The Israelites in the their tents woke at sunrise to hear

A voice raised to the sky, speaking their own tongue:

‘How godly are thy tents, O Jacob,

And thy tents, O Israel. As the valleys are they spread,

As gardens by the river’s side, as the trees

Of lign aloes which the Lord has planted,

And as cedar trees beside the waters.’ Balaam

Had come riding ecstatic into their camp,

His ass placid beneath him. He cried aloud:

‘He shall eat up the nations his enemies

And break the bones, and pierce them through with arrows.’

Moses came from his tent to see and hear

This prodigy: a fat old man on an ass,

Declaiming to heaven: ‘He couched, he lay down as a lion,

And as a great lion. Who shall stir him up?

Blessed is he that blesses thee, and cursed

Is he that curses thee.’ Moses said:

‘Whoever he is, he needs to be looked after.’

So gently Balaam on his ass was led

Towards the tents of the high. ‘She spoke,’ he cried.

‘She was fired with the fire of the Lord, and behold she spoke.’

The ass was led to grass, and Balaam laid

Gently in Joshua’s bed. They listened to him,

Joshua, Caleb, Eleazar, Moses,

With grave attention, while the younger children

Spoke to the ass, saying: ‘What is your name?

Where do you come from?’ And the ass said nothing,

Finding the grass good. But Balaam cried:

‘Behold the great truth is come upon me.

He is a God of all things, halleluiah.

To one of the uncircumcised, a son of Moab,

He shone like a great light and so shines still.

Halleluiah. And the vessel of the Lord,

Which is Israel, shall prevail, and God shall prevail.

Halleluiah, halleluiah.’ Moses spoke to Joshua,

Quietly, half-fearful, half-unwilling to believe:

‘So – the Lord God spreads his dominion.

Slowly. Almost cautiously. And the days of bloodshed

May soon be at an end. Our land may fall to us

Like a ripe pomegranate. Without a struggle.

Without the snipping of a single lock of hair

Or the bruising of finger.’ But Joshua knew

He spoke too soon. Balaam cried on and on:

‘Strong is the dwelling-place of the most high.

Thou puttest thy nest in a rock. And ships shall come

From the coast of Chittim, and the enemies of the Lord

Shall perish for ever and ever. Halleluiah.’

And the ass, without raising her teeth from the grass,

Raised her voice and brayed. ‘It was Amen.’

The children said. ‘It sounded like Amen.’

16

ZIMRI

So that, and they praised God for it, was all behind them:

The Dead Sea stretching in sunlight like a living one,

The boys diving into it for coolness

Shocked at not sinking, borne up by the hand

Of hidden water giants. They had shrieked, splashed,

Splashed, tasted. Salt, they had cried, salt.

Salt indeed, a salt lake set in a saltscape

Glooming with crystalline menace in the sun.

All we need is something to eat with it.

Salt salt salt. Remembering grandmothers’ stories,

The women saying: ‘The wife of Lot must be here

Somewhere.’ And the men: ‘She could be anywhere.’

Zipporah moaning: ‘Salt. Salt in my throat.

Soon surely we shall meet the fresh springs.

Why do we move so slowly, Ghersom?’ They were not

Moving at all: the tents had been set up

In the salt desert, salt under a salt moon.

But now the plain of Moab, with Moses saying:

‘You think we can travel safely?’ Joshua replying:

‘We can never travel safely. The strength of Moab

Is still an unknown, and Moab has many friends.

Do not take Balaam as a sign of the weakening of Moab.’

Moses smiled sadly: ‘Driven mad by the word of the Lord.

Poor Balaam.’ (Happy Balaam rode on his ass

Through the Israelite encampment, crying to the sky:

‘For the Lord of the Israelites is all things.

Behold, he is in the creeping worm of the earth

And in the fiery lioness that is the sun.

He is the unicorn and tiger and his name

Shall be blessed for ever and ever. Halleluiah.’

And a sardonic Israelite: ‘Halleluiah.’)

‘Caution, then,’ said Moses. ‘We must send patrols

To learn about their defences. And the general attitude

Of the Moabite population. We need them friendly.

We