The chiefest among ten thousand;
His locks are black as a raven,
His eyes are the eyes of doves,
Of doves by the rivers of water, 30
His lips are like unto lilies,
Dropping sweet-smelling myrrh.
ARCHITRICLINUS.
Who is that youth with the dark azure eyes,
And hair, in color like unto the wine,
Parted upon his forehead, and behind 35
Falling in flowing locks?
PARANYMPHUS.
The Nazarene
Who preacheth to the poor in field and village
The coming of God’s Kingdom.
ARCHITRICLINUS.
How serene
His aspect is! manly yet womanly.
PARANYMPHUS.
Most beautiful among the sons of men! 40
Oft known to weep, but never known to laugh.
ARCHITRICLINUS.
And tell me, she with eyes of olive tint,
And skin as fair as wheat, and pale brown hair,
The woman at his side?
PARANYMPHUS.
His mother, Mary.
ARCHITRICLINUS.
And the tall figure standing close behind them, 45
Clad all in white, with face and beard like ashes,
As if he were Elias, the White Witness,
Come from his cave on Carmel to foretell
The end of all things?
PARANYMPHUS.
That is Manahem
The Essenian, he who dwells among the palms 50
Near the Dead Sea.
ARCHITRICLINUS.
He who foretold to Herod
He should one day be King?
PARANYMPHUS.
The same.
ARCHITRICLINUS.
Then why
Doth he come here to sadden with his presence
Our marriage feast, belonging to a sect
Haters of women, and that taste not wine? 55
THE MUSICIANS.
My undefiled is but one,
The only one of her mother,
The choice of her that bare her;
The daughters saw her and blessed her;
The queens and the concubines praised her; 60
Saying, Lo! who is this
That looketh forth as the morning?
MANAHEM, aside.
The Ruler of the Feast is gazing at me,
As if he asked, why is that old man here
Among the revellers? And thou, the Anointed! 65
Why art thou here? I see as in a vision
A figure clothed in purple, crowned with thorns;
I see a cross uplifted in the darkness,
And hear a cry of agony, that shall echo
Forever and forever through the world! 70
ARCHITRICLINUS.
Give us more wine. These goblets are all empty.
MARY to CHRISTUS.
They have no wine!
CHRISTUS.
O woman, what have I
To do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.
MARY to the servants.
Whatever he shall say to you, that do.
CHRISTUS.
Fill up these pots with water. 75
THE MUSICIANS.
Come, my beloved,
Let us go forth into the field,
Let us lodge in the villages;
Let us get up early to the vineyards,
Let us see if the vine flourish, 80
Whether the tender grape appear,
And the pomegranates bud forth.
CHRISTUS.
Draw out now
And bear unto the Ruler of the Feast.
MANAHEM, aside.
O thou, brought up among the Essenians,
Nurtured in abstinence, taste not the wine! 85
It is the poison of dragons from the vineyards
Of Sodom, and the taste of death is in it!
ARCHITRICLINUS to the BRIDEGROOM.
All men set forth good wine at the beginning,
And when men have well drunk, that which is worse;
But thou hast kept the good wine until now. 90
MANAHEM, aside.
The things that have been and shall be no more,
The things that are, and that hereafter shall be,
The things that might have been, and yet were not,
The fading twilight of great joys departed,
The daybreak of great truths as yet unrisen, 95
The intuition and the expectation
Of something, which, when come, is not the same,
But only like its forecast in men’s dreams,
The longing, the delay, and the delight,
Sweeter for the delay; youth, hope, love, death, 100
And disappointment which is also death,
All these make up the sum of human life;
A dream within a dream, a wind at night
Howling across the desert in despair,
Seeking for something lost it cannot find. 105
Fate or foreseeing, or whatever name
Men call it, matters not; what is to be
Hath been fore-written in the thought divine
From the beginning. None can hide from it,
But it will find him out; nor run from it, 110
But it o’ertaketh him! The Lord hath said it.
THE BRIDEGROOM to the BRIDE, on the balcony.
When Abraham went with Sarah into Egypt,
The land was all illumined with her beauty;
But thou dost make the very night itself
Brighter than day! Behold, in glad procession, 115
Crowding the threshold of the sky above us,
The stars come forth to meet thee with their lamps;
And the soft winds, the ambassadors of flowers,
From neighboring gardens and from fields unseen,
Come laden with odors unto thee, my Queen! 120
THE MUSICIANS.
Awake, O north-wind,
And come, thou wind of the South.
Blow, blow upon my garden,
That the spices thereof may flow out.
IV.
In the Cornfields
PHILIP.
ONWARD through leagues of sun-illumined corn,
As if through parted seas, the pathway runs,
And crowned with sunshine as the Prince of Peace
Walks the beloved Master, leading us,
As Moses led our fathers in old times 5
Out of the land of bondage! We have found
Him of whom Moses and the Prophets wrote,
Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.
NATHANAEL.
Can any good come out of Nazareth?
Can this be the Messiah?
PHILIP.
Come and see. 10
NATHANAEL.
The summer sun grows hot: I am anhungered.
How cheerily the Sabbath-breaking quail
Pipes in the corn, and bids us to his Feast
Of Wheat Sheaves! How the bearded, ripening ears
Toss in the roofless temple of the air; 15
As if the unseen hand of some High-Priest
Waved them before Mount Tabor as an altar!
It were no harm, if we should pluck and eat.
PHILIP.
How wonderful it is to walk abroad
With the Good Master! Since the miracle 20
He wrought at Cana, at the marriage feast,
His fame hath gone abroad through all the land,
And when we come to Nazareth, thou shalt see
How his own people will receive their Prophet,
And hail him as Messiah! See, he turns 25
And looks at thee.
CHRISTUS.
Behold an Israelite
In whom there is no guile.
NATHANAEL.
Whence knowest thou me?
CHRISTUS.
Before that Ph
ilip called thee, when thou wast
Under the fig-tree, I beheld thee.
NATHANAEL.
Rabbi!
Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King 30
Of Israel!
CHRISTUS.
Because I said I saw thee
Under the fig-tree, before Philip called thee,
Believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things.
Hereafter thou shalt see the heavens unclosed,
The angels of God ascending and descending 35
Upon the Son of Man!
PHARISEES, passing.
Hail, Rabbi!
CHRISTUS.
Hail!
PHARISEES.
Behold how thy disciples do a thing
Which is not lawful on the Sabbath-day,
And thou forbiddest them not!
CHRISTUS.
Have ye not read
What David did when he anhungered was, 40
And all they that were with him? How he entered
Into the house of God, and ate the shew-bread,
Which was not lawful, saving for the priests?
Have ye not read, how on the Sabbath-days
The priests profane the Sabbath in the Temple, 45
And yet are blameless? But I say to you,
One in this place is greater than the Temple!
And had ye known the meaning of the words,
I will have mercy and not sacrifice,
The guiltless ye would not condemn. The Sabbath 50
Was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
Passes on with the disciples.
PHARISEES.
This is, alas! some poor demoniac
Wandering about the fields, and uttering
His unintelligible blasphemies
Among the common people, who receive 55
As prophecies the words they comprehend not!
Deluded folk! The incomprehensible
Alone excites their wonder. There is none
So visionary, or so void of sense,
But he will find a crowd to follow him! 60
V.
Nazareth
CHRISTUS, reading in the Synagogue.
THE SPIRIT of the Lord God is upon me.
He hath anointed me to preach good tidings
Unto the poor; to heal the broken-hearted;
To comfort those that mourn, and to throw open
The prison doors of captives, and proclaim 5
The Year Acceptable of the Lord, our God!
He closes the book and sits down.
A PHARISEE.
Who is this youth? He hath taken the Teacher’s seat!
Will he instruct the Elders?
A PRIEST.
Fifty years
Have I been Priest here in the Synagogue,
And never have I seen so young a man 10
Sit in the Teacher’s seat!
CHRISTUS.
Behold, to-day
This scripture is fulfilled. One is appointed
And hath been sent to them that mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes, and the oil
Of joy for mourning! They shall build again 15
The old waste-places; and again raise up
The former desolations, and repair
The cities that are wasted! As a bride-groom
Decketh himself with ornaments; as a bride
Adorneth herself with jewels, so the Lord 20
Hath clothed me with the robe of righteousness!
A PRIEST.
He speaks the Prophet’s words; but with an air
As if himself had been foreshadowed in them!
CHRISTUS.
For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace,
And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest 25
Until its righteousness be as a brightness,
And its salvation as a lamp that burneth!
Thou Shalt be called no longer the Forsaken,
Nor any more thy land the Desolate.
The Lord hath sworn, by his right hand hath sworn, 30
And by his arm of strength: I will no more
Give to thine enemies thy corn as meat;
The sons of strangers shall not drink thy wine.
Go through, go through the gates! Prepare a way
Unto the people! Gather out the stones! 35
Lift up a standard for the people!
A PRIEST.
Ah!
These are seditious words!
CHRISTUS.
And they shall call them
The holy people; the redeemed of God!
And thou, Jerusalem, shalt be called Sought out,
A city not forsaken!
A PHARISEE.
Is not this 40
The carpenter Joseph’s son? Is not his mother
Called Mary? and his brethren and his sisters
Are they not with us? Doth he make himself
To be a Prophet?
CHRISTUS.
No man is a Prophet
In his own country, and among his kin. 45
In his own house no Prophet is accepted.
I say to you, in the land of Israel
Were many widows in Elijah’s day,
When for three years and more the heavens were shut,
And a great famine was throughout the land; 50
But unto no one was Elijah sent
Save to Sarepta, to a city of Sidon,
And to a woman there that was a widow.
And many lepers were there in the land
Of Israel, in the time of Eliseus 55
The Prophet, and yet none of them was cleansed,
Save Naaman the Syrian!
A PRIEST.
Say no more!
Thou comest here into our Synagogue
And speakest to the Elders and the Priests,
As if the very mantle of Elijah 60
Had fallen upon thee! Art thou not ashamed?
A PHARISEE.
We want no Prophets here! Let him be driven
From Synagogue and city! Let him go
And prophesy to the Samaritans!
AN ELDER.
The world is changed. We Elders are as nothing! 65
We are but yesterdays, that have no part
Or portion in to-day! Dry leaves that rustle,
That make a little sound, and then are dust!
A PHARISEE.
A carpenter’s apprentice! a mechanic,
Whom we have seen at work here in the town 70
Day after day; a stripling without learning,
Shall he pretend to unfold the Word of God
To men grown old in study of the Law?
CHRISTUS is thrust out.
VI.
The Sea of Galilee
PETER and ANDREW mending their nets.
PETER.
NEVER was such a marvellous draught of fishes
Heard of in Galilee! The market-places
Both of Bethsaida and Capernaum
Are full of them! Yet we had toiled all night
And taken nothing, when the Master said: 5
Launch out into the deep, and cast your nets;
And doing this, we caught such multitudes,
Our nets like spiders’ webs were snapped asunder,
And with the draught we filled two ships so full
That they began to sink. Then I knelt down 10
Amazed, and said: O Lord, depart from me,
I am a sinful man. And he made answer:
Simon, fear not; henceforth thou shalt catch men!
What was the meaning of those words?
ANDREW.
I know not.
But here is Philip, come from Nazareth. 15
He hath been with the Master. Tell us, Philip,
What tidings dost thou bring?
PHILIP.
Most wonderful!
As we drew near to Nain, out of the gate
Upon a bier
was carried the dead body
Of a young man, his mother’s only son, 20
And she a widow, who with lamentation
Bewailed her loss, and the much people with her;
And when the Master saw her he was filled
With pity; and he said to her: Weep not!
And came and touched the bier, and they that bare it 25
Stood still; and then he said: Young man, arise!
And he that had been dead sat up, and soon
Began to speak; and he delivered him
Unto his mother. And there came a fear
On all the people and they glorified 30
The Lord, and said, rejoicing: A great Prophet
Is risen up among us! and the Lord
Hath visited his people!
PETER.
A great Prophet?
Ay, greater than a Prophet: greater even
Than John the Baptist!
PHILIP.
Yet the Nazarenes 35
Rejected him.
PETER.
The Nazarenes are dogs!
As natural brute beasts, they growl at things
They do not understand; and they shall perish,
Utterly perish in their own corruption.
The Nazarenes are dogs!
PHILIP.
They drave him forth 40
Out of their Synagogue, out of their city,
And would have cast him down a precipice,
But, passing through the midst of them, he vanished
Out of their hands.
PETER.
Wells are they without water,
Clouds carried with a tempest, unto whom 45
The mist of darkness is reserved forever!
PHILIP
Behold he cometh. There is one man with him
I am amazed to see!
ANDREW.
What man is that?
PHILIP.
Judas Iscariot; he that cometh last,
Girt with a leathern apron. No one knoweth 50
His history; but the rumor of him is
He had an unclean spirit in his youth.
Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Delphi Poets Series Book 13) Page 89
