Part 10 (1/2)

I

AN ELEGY OF A BROKEN HEART

1

Let the day perish wherein I was born; And the night which said, There is a man child conceived!

Let that day be darkness; Let not G.o.d regard it from above, Neither let the light s.h.i.+ne upon it!

Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own; Let a cloud dwell upon it; Let all that maketh black the day terrify it!

As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it; Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not come into the number of the months!

Lo, let that night be barren; Let no joyful voice come therein!

Let them curse it that curse the day, Who are ready to rouse up leviathan!

Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark!

Let it look for light, but have none; Neither let it behold the eyelids of the morning:

Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, Nor hid trouble from mine eyes!

2

Why died I not from the womb?

Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

Why did the knees receive me?

Or why the b.r.e.a.s.t.s, that I should suck?

For now should I have lien down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest, With kings and counsellors of the earth, Which built solitary piles for themselves; Or with princes that had gold, Who filled their houses with silver; Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; As infants which never saw light.

There the wicked cease from troubling; And there the weary be at rest.

There the prisoners are at ease together; They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

The small and great are there; And the servant is free from his master.

Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, And life unto the bitter in soul?

Which long for death, but it cometh not; And dig for it more than for hid treasures; Which rejoice exceedingly, And are glad when they can find the grave.

Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, And whom G.o.d hath hedged in?

For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my roarings are poured out like water.

For the thing which I fear cometh upon me, And that which I am afraid of cometh unto me.

I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, Neither have I rest: but trouble cometh!

II

THE CREATOR'S JOY IN HIS CREATION

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?

----Declare, if thou hast understanding---- Who determined the measures thereof, if thou knowest?

Or who stretched the line upon it?

Whereupon were the foundations thereof fastened?

Or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of G.o.d shouted for joy?

Or who shut up the sea with doors, When it brake forth, and issued out of the womb; When I made the cloud the garment thereof, And thick darkness a swaddling band for it, And prescribed for it my decree, And set bars and doors, And said, ”Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; And here shall thy proud waves be stayed?”

Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days began, And caused the dayspring to know its place; That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, And the wicked be shaken out of it?

It is changed as clay under the seal; And all things stand forth as a garment: And from the wicked their light is withholden, And the high arm is broken.

Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?

Or hast thou walked in the recesses of the deep?

Have the gates of death been revealed unto thee?

Or hast thou seen the gates of the shadow of death?

Hast thou comprehended the breadth of the earth?