Collected Poems Anthony Burgess (best pdf reader for ebooks txt) 📖

to you of the primal vessel of sin,

Woman. Sin and impurity. Of woman.’

But some of the women hearing hardened their faces

At his words, and at the words that followed:

‘It was Eve, the mother of all mankind,

That brought sin into the world, and that sin rests

With all her daughters, sin made manifest

In their uncleanness – filth of the mensal courses,

Of the very process of birth. Far more than men,

Women are lodged in the flesh and cling to the flesh,

Are rarely aroused to climb to the pure spirit.

If all women be unclean, how much more so

Are the women of the pagan peoples, in whom

Dwells the active devil of disruption –

The desire to draw men down from their purity

Into the stinking pit.’ Moses said

To Caleb: ‘I think he goes too far.’ But he listened:

‘Within our very gates still lies the stench

Of foreign idols and all their abominations,

Reeking from a vessel of pagan filth.

I demand that the vessel be shattered.’ A woman cried:

‘You spit on your own mother.’ And Moses said:

‘He does go too far.’ But Phinehas, inflamed,

Cried out: ‘The curse of the all highest fall

On all who shut their ears to the voice of holiness.

May they who hearken not to the words of their priests

Be thrust to the bottomless pit of the fires that fail not,

To the eternal dungeons of divine damnation.’

There was much more of this, but Cozbi,

Impure pagan vessel, and Zimri lay

In the peace of their after-love, but a troubled peace.

‘Believe me’, he said, ‘beloved, all will change

When we have crossed the river. There will be no more

Suspicion, hatred, panic. Our people tremble

With fear and disordered nerves.’ But she: ‘Your people –

The members of your tribe – they like me?’ Zimri:

‘Did they not show as much? We talk of nation,

But the reality does not lie out there –

With armies, flags, and tablets of the law.

It is in the tribe, which is but a family.

You are become a part of it.’ A shadow

Crossed them at that instant, obscuring the moon

An instant. Zimri said: ‘Who is there?’ And Cozbi

Whispered: ‘Are they setting spies on us?’

A voice was over them, in their tent, shouting:

‘A spy of the Lord God. Prepare you, woman,

To join your stinking idols in the abode of blackness.’ –

‘Who are you?’ Zimri cried, rising aghast,

Arms out. Then there was a knife to be seen. ‘And you, too –

Son of the prince Salu and foul shame

To the tribe of Simeon.’ He lunged, Zimri fought,

The strength of the fanatic prevailed. Struck down,

Blood welling, he lay. Cozbi, in fear and horror,

Cried to the moon. ‘And now’, Phinehas panted,

‘Whore of Moab –‘ A scream through the sleeping camp,

Unheeded, some beast or bird of the night. At daybreak,

Phinehas spoke with pride of his work. Zeal, zeal –

The zeal of them who love the Lord ‘Your zeal’,

Cried Moses. ‘Yes, your sacred zeal, as you call it.

But sacred zeal can go too far. I am sickened

By your sacred murderous zeal.’ But the priest, surprised,

Said: ‘We are an embattled people. Are not those your words?

The speck in the fruit corrupts the whole basket.

The accursed of God may be stricken down by the priests of God.

That is laid down in the law.’ But Moses said:

‘The law is written on stone – hard, unyielding –

But the law may still be as flexible as a song.

Examine your own heart, Phinehas. You took pleasure

In the slaying of that innocent woman.’ – ‘Innocent?

Innocent?’ – ‘Yes, she knew no better.

She was not one of the chosen. But perhaps

She was being drawn towards the light and the truth. Yet you

Took pleasure in slaying her perhaps because she was a woman.

You fear women, hence you see them as vessels of sin.

But I say this to you, Phinehas: that it is the women

Who will carry our faith when the men waver. Strength

Is in the woman and not in the man. Men dream,

But the divine vision is no dream. It is as real

As the sweeping of the hearth, real as the beaming of children.

The bones of women are strong to bear. Has the Lord

Spoken to you since your act of religious zeal?’

Phinehas said: ‘The Lord has sent dreams of sin

And dreams of killing. Then I wake howling.’ Moses

Shook his head: ‘You were not meant to be a priest.

A warrior perhaps. Well, you may soon be able

To plunge your steel into flesh less yielding. The news

Of your zeal may already have reached the divan of Balak.’

But Phinehas: ‘She was a whore and a foul whore.’ –

Moses spat. ‘Go from me, little man.

What do you know about whores?’

                            The apportioning

Of the land that they were yet to see went on.

Caleb read out the figures of the census, for the grant

Was to be by numbers. ‘The sons of Benjamin –

Forty-five thousand and six hundred. The families

Of the Shuhamites – sixty-four thousand four hundred.

Asher – the return is not yet in.’ Moses said:

‘Not one who was with us in the desert of Sinai.

Not one who remembers Egypt. Except Joshua

And you. And Me, but my day is over. The word

Of the Lord is fulfilled.’ Caleb, impatiently:

‘Yes yes. The families of Naphtali – little difference

In their numbers from the numbers of Benjamin – two hundred.

One might as well give them the same apportionment.’

Clerks were at work on a planed board. Eleazar,

The son of Aaron, supervised, marking proportion,

Location. Then women approached, and Caleb said:

‘Women? What can women want?’ Five women,

Making with purpose towards Moses. Eleazar frowned:

‘This is irregular. Women should stay with their children

And with their pots and pans.’ Moses said:

‘You have been infected by the misplaced zeal

Of your former colleague. Where is he now, by the way?’ –

‘Phinehas?’ Eleazar frowned still. ‘Out with the army.

He has a gift for fighting.’ – ‘He will enjoy it’

Moses sighed, ‘slaying the Midianite women.

God help us, when shall we ever be at peace?’

Eleazar said: ‘The holy war goes on.

Slay them, said the Lord. Feed the earth

With the blood of the idolator.’ – ‘Enough, Eleazar,’

Moses said, and then: ‘Welcome, daughters.’ –

‘This is highly irregular,’ cried the priest.

‘Many things are irregular’, said one of the women.

‘Including what we are about to speak