Jeremiah Part 20

VOICES

Who began it?--Not we.--Not I.--It was the king.--It was the priests.--We wanted to live at peace with them.

A VOICE

Egypt lured us on, and then betrayed us.

VOICES

Yes, it was Egypt.--It was Pharaoh.--A curse upon Pharaoh.--The Egyptians have sold us to the enemy, have abandoned us to our misery.--Where are the fifty thousand bowmen they promised? We are alone.--All is lost.

ANOTHER VOICE

Woe, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Thou art given over to thine enemies, and those who hate thee are showing their teeth.

FIRST SENTRY

[Fiercely interrupting] Away with you! Why are you loitering on the walls? Home to your wives, and to bed. We stand guard for you.

A MAN

We want to see ...

FIRST SENTRY

There is nothing to see. You have been clamoring for Ashur, and now Ashur has come. Leave it to us men-at-arms to chase them home again. For yourselves, go sleep, or pray if you cannot sleep.

A MAN

But tell us ...

FIRST SENTRY

Naught to tell. There has been too much talking already; the time has come for blows. Away, away!

[The two sentries roughly clear the loiterers from the wall. The crowd disappears in the darkness down the steps leading from the wall into the shadow. When all have gone, quiet reigns. In the white moonlight the sentries stand like figures of bra.s.s]

FIRST SENTRY

They give way to despair at the first gleam of an enemy's spear. They must not be allowed to talk like that.

SECOND SENTRY

One who is afraid and cannot master his fear must perforce speak. It is of no use, and yet it gives relief.

FIRST SENTRY

Let them sleep, not chatter.

SECOND SENTRY

Sleep is not man's servant. Vainly do we summon sleep to a couch of sorrow. To-night many hold vigil and look forth into the moonlight.

FIRST SENTRY

In any case, those alone should speak who wear a sword. We stand guard for all.

[The two sentries are silent for a while, marching to and fro]

SECOND SENTRY

[Stands and listens] Do you hear?

FIRST SENTRY

What?

SECOND SENTRY

The sound is very faint, but the breeze bears it to us. When I was in Joppa, for the first time I heard in the night the distant murmur of the waves. Such a sound rises now from the plain. They are there in their thousands, moving quietly, but the air is stirred by the rolling wheels and the clashing arms. A whole nation must be afoot, falling upon Israel. The noise echoes from our walls like the noise of the sea.

FIRST SENTRY

[Obdurately] I refuse to hear anything but my orders. I care not what wheels roll, or noises stir.

SECOND SENTRY

Why does G.o.d hurl the nations against one another? There is room for all beneath the skies. There is still plenty of land unploughed; many forests still await the axe. Yet men turn their ploughshares into swords, and hew living flesh with their axes. I cannot understand, I cannot understand.

FIRST SENTRY

It has always been so.

SECOND SENTRY

But must it always be so? Why does G.o.d wish the nations to fight?

FIRST SENTRY

The nations want war for its own sake.

SECOND SENTRY

What are nations? Are not you one of our nation, am not I another? Are not our wives, your wife and mine, part of this same people? Did any of us want war? I stand here armed with a spear, not knowing against whom it is to be turned. Down there in the darkness, unwitting, waits the man for whom it is destined. I know him not, have never seen his face, or the breast I must pierce with death. In the enemy's camp another perchance warms his hands at the camp fire, the man who is to kill the father of my children. He has never seen me, and I have never done him harm. We are strangers, like trees in the forest. They grow quietly and bear their blossoms. But we rage furiously one against the other with axe and with spear, until our blood runs like resin, and therewith the life oozes forth. What puts death between the nations? What is it which sows hatred when there is room and to spare for life, and when there is abundant scope for love? I cannot understand, I cannot understand!

FIRST SENTRY

These things must be G.o.d's will, for they have always happened. I question no further.