THE GOPHERWOOD BOX
Abraham Sutzkever
Translated by Zackary Sholem Berger
HE NO LONGER REMEMBERS who entrusted him with the secret.
Maybe a dream.
A dream-hare, on quicksilver feet, stole into his soul through some window he forgot to lock and told him the secret.
It could also be possible, he thinks, that the old man—who lived in the mausoleum at the cemetery and waited for his purple beard like a branch of rowanberries to grow into the ground and root him to the dead—told him with his stammering lips.
And maybe—he can’t swear that it didn’t happen—a cuckoo keened the secret to him in Yiddish.
He doesn’t remember who, but someone had whispered to him that somewhere-over-there, in a well on Tatars Street, a gopherwood box was hidden, full of the most precious diamonds, without peer in the world.
The fiery tail of the war was still dragging through the dead city, like a part of a giant prehistoric creature.
The black sites of burned out walls were besieged by clay clouds, as if the clouds were descending to rebuild the city.
One night, the man, dressed in paper garments that he had sewn for himself from loose leaves of holy books, went from the cemetery to Tatars Street to look for the well.
Because though he was as alone as a finger, the story of the gopherwood box had warmed his bones.
He didn’t have to look long for the well. The moon licked its walls with mold that branched like lightning. Nearby lay the well rod, like a gallows kneeling before the hanged.
The man leaned over the mouth of the well to look inside and saw nothing, because its mouth was covered with spiderwebs.
So he tore open the closed net of spiderwebs and threw a stone into the well to estimate its depth.
The stone answered him.
Then he untied a rope from the well, knotted it around a hook, and like a chimneysweep down a chimney, lowered himself in.
The water was lukewarm like the heart of someone who recently died.
Just then, when the moon, like a purple turtledove, emerged on its wings from the well with a sigh, the man found the gopherwood box under the water, hid it in his bosom, and his bones sang as he pulled himself up.
The Morning Star hung over the neighborhood like a drop of blood.
The man ran over glowing embers all the way to the old cemetery.
Only there, his heart pounding, his eyes like wild poppies, did he pick up the treasure with both hands and hold it in front of him.
He saw a—skull.
A skull like old parchment, with two shocking holes and a clever, living smile, looked at him from the ruin without a word.
“Skull, what’s your name?”
When the hard-bitten teeth of the skull didn’t answer, the man couldn’t take it anymore and hurled it to the ground like Moses did the tablets.
But he immediately thought of the fact that the skull looked like his dad.
He covered the living smile with kisses, and his fiery tears overflowed into the skull’s holes.
Kissing it, he felt at home. A warm tune began to play in his veins.
Suddenly a shapeless force repelled him:
“No, it’s not your father, that’s not what he looked like.”
He picked up the skull again with both hands and like a beaten dog let out a wail:
“WHAT IS YOUR NAME?”
Then the man finally heard his own name.
He felt that the head that he had been carrying on his shoulders for so many years—was not his.
So he put the skull on his head, and keeping it on with both hands, in the paper garments that he had sewn for himself from stray leaves of holy books—he set out through the dead city to greet redemption.
Amos Tutuola (1920–1997) was a Nigerian writer who was the first internationally celebrated African novelist in English. The manuscript of his first book, The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952), happened to reach T. S. Eliot, working then as an editor at Faber & Faber, who recommended publishing it, and on publication it gained significant attention after a review by Dylan Thomas. Tutuola’s second novel, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1954), soon followed. They remain his best-known works, both celebrated and derided for their unique diction and melding of Yoruba folktales with Tutuola’s own imaginings. Later African fiction that reached an audience in Europe and North America tended to be more realist, its language more straightforward, its political commitments clear, and Tutuola’s reputation suffered, though he continued to publish such books as Feather Woman of the Jungle (1962), Yoruba Folktales (1986), and The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories (1990). In recent decades, Tutuola’s work (particularly his first two books) has gained new appreciation, and younger Yoruba, Nigerian, and African writers have shown a clear affinity with his phantasmagoric, visionary approach to fiction, perhaps most prominently Ben Okri. The influence extends well beyond Africa; recently, the Booker Prize–winning Jamaican novelist Marlon James said in an interview with PBS that his “literary sensibility is as much shaped by Amos Tutuola as it is by Charles Dickens.”
MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS
(EXCERPT)
Amos Tutuola
IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS
AT THE SAME TIME as I entered into the bush I could not stop in one place as the noises of the guns were driving me farther and farther until I traveled about sixteen miles away from the road on which my brother left me. After I had traveled sixteen miles and was still running further for the fearful noises, I did not know the time that I entered into a dreadful bush which is called the “Bush of Ghosts,” because I was very young to understand the meaning of “bad” and “good.”
This “Bush of Ghosts” was so dreadful so that no superior earthly person ever entered it. But as the noises of the enemies’ guns drove me very far until I entered into the “Bush of Ghosts” unnoticed, because I was too young to know that it was a dreadful bush or it was banned to be entered by any earthly person, so that immediately I entered it I stopped and ate both fruits which my brother gave me before we left each other, because I was very hungry before I reached there. After I ate it then I started to wander about in this bush both day and night until I reached a rising ground which was almost covered with thick bush and weeds which made the place very dark both day and night. Every part of this small hill was very clean as if somebody was sweeping it. But as I was very tired of roaming about before I reached there, so I bent down to see the hill clearly, because my aim was to sleep there. Yet I could not see it clearly as I bent down, but when I had lain down flatly then I saw clearly that it had an entrance with which to enter into it.
The entrance resembled the door of a house and it had a portico which was sparkling as if it was polished with Brasso at all moments. The portico was also made of golden plate. But as I was too young to know “bad” and “good” I thought that it was an old man’s house who was expelled from a town for an offense, then I entered it and went inside it until I reached a junction of three passages which each led to a room as there were three rooms.
One of these rooms had golden surroundings, the second had silverish surroundings and the third had copperish. But as I stood at the junction of these passages with confusion three kinds of sweet smells were rushing out to me from each of these three rooms, but as I was hungry and also starving before I entered into this hole, so I began to sniff the best smell so that I might enter the right room at once from which the best sweet smell was rushing out. Of course as I stood on this junction I noticed through my nose that the smell which was rushing out of the room which had golden surroundings was just as if the inhabitant of it was baking bread and roasting fowl, and when I sniffed again the smell of the room which had copperish surroundings was just as if the inhabitant of that was cooking rice, potatoes and other African food with very sweet
soup, and then the room which had silverish surroundings was just as if the inhabitant was frying yam, roasting fowl and baking cakes. But I thought in my mind to go direct to the room from which the smell of the African food was rushing out to me, as I prefer my native food most. But I did not know that all that I was thinking in mind was going to the hearing of the inhabitants of these three rooms, so at the same moment that I wanted to move my body to go to the room from which the smell of the African’s food was rushing to me (the room which had copperish surroundings) there I saw that these three rooms which had no doors and windows opened unexpectedly and three kinds of ghosts peeped at me, every one of them pointed his finger to me to come to him.
These ghosts were so old and weary that it is hard to believe that they were living creatures. Then I stood at this junction with my right foot which I dangled with fear and looking at them. But as I was looking at each of them surprisingly I noticed that the inhabitant of the room which had golden surroundings was a golden ghost in appearance, then the second room which had copperish surroundings was a copperish ghost and also the third was a silverish ghost.
As every one of them pointed his finger to me to come to him I preferred most to go direct to the copperish-ghost from whose room the smell of African’s food was rushing out to me, but when the golden ghost saw my movement which showed that I wanted to go to the copperish-ghost, so at the same time he lighted the golden flood of light all over my body to persuade me not to go to the copperish-ghost, as every one of them wanted me to be his servant. So as he lighted the flood of golden light on my body and when I looked at myself I thought that I became gold as it was shining on my body, so at this time I preferred most to go to him because of his golden light. But as I moved forward a little bit to go to him then the copperish-ghost lighted the flood of his own copperish light on my body too, which persuaded me again to go to the golden-ghost as my body was changing to every color that copper has, and my body was then so bright so that I was unable to touch it. And again as I preferred this copperish light more than the golden-light then I started to go to him, but at this stage I was prevented again to go to him by the silverish-light which shone on to my body at that moment unexpectedly. This silverish-light was as bright as snow so that it transparented every part of my body and it was this day I knew the number of the bones of my body. But immediately I started to count them these three ghosts shone the three kinds of their lights on my body at the same time in such a way that I could not move to and fro because of these lights. But as these three old ghosts shone their lights on me at the same time so I began to move round as a wheel at this junction, as I appreciated these lights as the same.
But as I was staggering about on this junction for about half an hour because of these lights, the copperish-ghost was wiser than the rest, he quenched his own copperish-light from my body, so at this time I had a little chance to go to the rest. Of course, when the golden-ghost saw that I could not run two races at a blow successfully, so he quenched his own light too from my body, and at this time I had chance to run a single race to the silverish-ghost. But when I nearly reached his room then the copperish-ghost and the golden-ghost were lighting their lights on me as signals and at the same moment the silverish-ghost joined them to use his own light as signal to me as well, because I was disturbed by the other two ghosts. Then I stopped again and looking at every one of them how he was shining his own lights on me at two or three seconds’ interval as signal.
Although I appreciated or recognized these lights as the same, but I appreciated one thing more which is food, and this food is my native food which was cooked by the copperish-ghost, but as I was very hungry so I entered into his room, and when he saw that it was his room I entered he was exceedingly glad so that he gave me the food which was the same color with copper. But as every one of these three old ghosts wanted me to be his servant, so that the other two ghosts who were the golden-ghost and the silverish-ghost did not like me to be servant for the copperish-ghost who gave me the food that I preferred most, and both entered into the room of the copperish-ghost, all of them started to argue. At last all of them held me tightly in such a way that I could not breathe in or out. But as they held me with argument for about three hours, so when I was nearly cut into three as they were pulling me about in the room I started to cry louder so that all the ghosts and ghostesses of that area came to their house and within twenty minutes this house could not contain the ghosts who heard information and came to settle the misunderstanding. But when they came and met them how they were pulling me about in the room with much argument then they told them to leave me and they left me at once.
After that all the ghosts who came to settle the matter arranged these three old ghosts in a single line and then they told me to choose one of them for myself to be my master so that there would be no more misunderstanding between themselves. So I stood before them and looking at every one of them with my heart which was throbbing hastily to the hearing of all of them, in such a way that the whole of the ghosts who came to settle the matter rushed to me to listen well to what my heart was saying. But as these wonderful creatures understood what my heart was saying they warned me not to choose any one of them with my mouth, because they thought it would speak partiality against one of these three ghosts, as my heart was throbbing repeatedly as if a telegraphist is sending messages by telegraph.
As a matter of fact my heart first told me to choose the silverish-ghost who stood at the extreme right and if to say I would choose by mouth I would only choose the copperish-ghost who had the African’s food and that was partiality, and it was at this time I noticed carefully all the ghosts who came to settle the matter that many of them had no hands and some had no fingers, some had no feet and arms but jumped instead of walking. Some had heads without eyes and ears, but I was very surprised to see them walking about both day and night without missing their way and also it was this day I had ever seen ghosts without clothes on their bodies and they were not ashamed of their nakedness.
Uncountable numbers of them stood before me and looked at me as dolls with great surprise as they had no heads or eyes. But as they forced me to choose the silverish-ghost as he was the ghost that my heart throbbed out to their hearing to choose, when I chose him, he was exceedingly glad and ran to me, then he took me on his shoulder and then to his room. But still the other two were not satisfied with the judgment of the settlers and both ran to his room and started to fight again. This fight was so fearful and serious that all the creatures in that bush with big trees stood still on the same place that they were, even breezes could not blow at this time and these three old ghosts were still fighting on fiercely until a fearful ghost who was almost covered with all kinds of insects which represented his clothes entered their house when hearing their noises from a long distance.
THE SMELLING-GHOST
All kinds of snakes, centipedes and flies were living on every part of his body. Bees, wasps and uncountable mosquitoes were also flying round him and it was hard to see him plainly because of these flies and insects. But immediately this dreadful ghost came inside this house from heaven-knows-where his smell and also the smell of his body first drove us to a long distance before we came back after a few minutes, but still the smell did not let every one of the settlers stand still as all his body was full of excreta, urine, and also wet with the rotten blood of all the animals that he was killing for his food. His mouth, which was always opening, his nose and eyes were very hard to look at as they were very dirty and smelling. His name is “Smelling-ghost.” But what made me surprised and fear most was that this “smelling-ghost” wore many scorpions on his fingers as rings and all were alive, many poisonous snakes were also on his neck as beads and he belted his leathern trousers with a very big and long boa constrictor which was still alive.
Of course at first I did not know that he was the king of all the smelling-ghosts in the 7th town of ghosts. Immediately he entered this hous
e, they (golden-ghost, silverish-ghost, and copperish-ghost) stopped fighting at once. After that he called them out of the room in which they were fighting, when they came out and stood before him, then he asked for the matter, but when they told him he called me out of the room in which I hid myself for his bad smell with his fearful appearance which I was dreaming of, without sleeping. When they called me to come to him and when I stood before him I closed my eyes, mouth and nose with both my hands because of his smell. Then he told them that he would cut me into three parts and give each part to each of them so that there would be no more misunderstanding. But as I heard from him that he would cut me into three, I fainted more than an hour before my heart came back to normal.
But God is so good these three old ghosts were not satisfied with his judgment at all, and after they had rested for a few minutes, they started fighting again.
So I was very lucky as they did not agree for him to cut me for them and when he saw that they did not agree but were still fighting, then he gripped me with his hands, which were very hot, and put me into the big bag, which he hung on his left shoulder, and kept going away at the same time. But when he threw me into the bag I was totally covered with the rotten blood of the animals which he was killing in the bush. This bag was so smelling and full of mosquitoes, small snakes with centipedes which did not let me rest for a moment. This is how I left the golden-ghost, silverish-ghost, and copperish-ghost and it was from their house I started my punishment in this “Bush of Ghosts.” After he left these three ghosts and traveled till the evening, then he stopped suddenly, thinking within himself with a loud voice either to eat me or to eat half of me and reserve the other half till night. Because as he was taking me along in the bush he was trying all his best to kill a bush animal to eat as food, as he could not reach his town which is the 7th town of smelling-ghosts on that day.
The Big Book of Modern Fantasy Page 13