The Complete Old English Poems
Page 14
Against betrayal, a breach of trust,
And the resulting torment, a terrible loss.
Now hunger and thirst gnaw at my heart. 885
Care and discomfort have entered Eden.
How will we survive when the savage wind
Blows from west or east, south or north?
Storm-clouds will come, hail from heaven—
Frost will follow us, snow stalk us, 890
An evil cold come creeping over us.
Sometimes the savage sun will blast
Our frail bodies, scorching our skin
As we walk naked, exposed to the elements.
We’ve no free food, no sweet sustenance, 895
No shield from the storm, no safe shelter
From God’s righteous wrath, his punishing rage.
How can we survive? Now I sorely regret
Requesting God to make me a helpmate,
Raising you up out of my own rib bone, 900
For you have led me astray into hateful sin,
My heart’s shame, and my Lord’s loathing.
I regret that I ever laid eyes on you.”
Then Eve replied, the loveliest of women,
Fairest of wives—still the handiwork of God, 905
Even though ruined by the devious devil—
Lamenting her loss of the Lord’s trust:
“You are right to reproach me with hard words,
My lord and husband, yet the gall in your mind
Cannot be greater than the grief in my heart.” 910
Then Adam was downcast and answered Eve:
“If I knew God’s will, perceived his punishment,
You would see no hesitation in my heart,
No doubt in my mind. If God commanded me
To endure the ocean, sail blindly away 915
On the dangerous waves, I would never flinch,
But rush to a ship, risk sinking down
To the sea-bottom and entering the abyss
To accomplish his will. Now grace is gone,
Bliss is abandoned. I have lost my precious 920
Service to the Lord. There’s no joy in paradise.
We can’t stand here naked forever,
Baring our bodies for anyone to see.
We failed God. Let’s head for the forest,
Seeking a hideout in the wild wood.” 925
So the two sad sinners turned away
From their happy home, walking in woe
Into the green forest where they sat in sorrow,
Apart from paradise, awaiting their punishment,
Afraid of the pain that promised to come 930
Because they had broken their Lord’s command,
Losing the gifts bestowed by God.
Then Adam and Eve were sorely ashamed
Of their bare bodies, covering themselves
With torn ferns and fallen leaves. 935
They owned nothing to wear in shame—
They had no clothes. They bowed down together,
Prostrated in prayer, begging each morning
That God might come, that their almighty Father
Would not forget them, but finding them in the wild, 940
Would show them how to survive in the world,
Living in the light after their loss of paradise.
Genesis A (continued)
Then almighty God, the glorious Prince,
Came into paradise in the middle of the day
For a leisurely stroll. Our Lord and Savior, 945
Our merciful Father, walked into Eden,
Wanting to check on his beloved children.
He knew they had eaten the forbidden fruit—
Their glory was gone, their innocence undone.
They scurried away, deprived of their dignity, 950
To hide in the tree-shadows, torn and tormented
By their shameful act, shaking with fear.
They huddled in the gloom, hearing God’s voice.
The Lord of heaven summoned his servant,
Keeper of each of the creatures in paradise. 955
God called to Adam, his abject son,
Who came naked to greet him, saying:
“Here I am, Life-lord, hiding in the wild,
For I have no clothes to cover the shame
Of my bare body so I’m dressed in leaves. 960
My thoughts are dark—my conscience torments me.
I’m scathed by sin and dreading doom,
Standing here stark naked before my Lord.”
God immediately answered Adam:
“Tell me, my son, why do you seek 965
These shadows in shame, this hopeless hideout?
I left you and Eve unembarrassed in Eden,
Your beautiful spirits bright with grace.
Why do you cover your body with leaves,
Inviting misery into your innocent mind 970
Unless you have tasted the forbidden fruit,
Eating the apple I forbade you to touch?”
Then Adam answered his guardian Lord:
“This beautiful woman, this beloved bride,
Offered me the fruit, hand to mouth, 975
Which I accepted in trust, betraying your word.
Now I am marked within and without
By a sense of sin. My world is woe.”
Then almighty God questioned Eve:
“Tell me, my daughter, having touched the tree 980
And tasted its fruit, what have you learned
From this sinful way of seeing the world
And being ashamed of yourself in Eden?
What did it profit you to be free in paradise
Only to grasp the apple, taste bitter fruit, 985
Devouring death in spite of my warning,
My counsel and command? Can you grasp
Its meaning, its unmaking? Does it twist your being
From blessing to bale, from bliss to bane?
Why did you offer Adam the apple to eat?” 990
Then Eve, the loveliest of women, was ashamed
As she listened to her lord and answered back:
“The serpent tricked me, that gaudy devil,
That devious snake, stalking me always
With his twisted tongue and tempting words 995
To grab that fruit, taste its sweetness,
Gobble it up, swallowing sin,
Until I snatched it like a shameless thief
Against your will and wolfed it down.
I admit I ate the apple. It was not right.” 1000
Then our Savior, the almighty Lord,
Said to the snake, the guilty serpent:
“Now you shall wander the face of the earth,
Crawling through creation on your bare belly,
Footless, speechless, heartless, and hated 1005
By all of mankind. You shall eat dirt
All the days of your life for this loathsome deed.
The woman will despise you for dishing out discord
And tread on your unholy head with her heel.
You will lie in wait to wound her foot 1010
With your vile, venomous forked tongue.
The feud between you two will last forever,
Marking and murdering your children’s children.
Your seeds will never be safe from strife
As long as the earth exists. Now you know, 1015
Evil enemy of man, what your life will be like.”
In his righteous wrath, God spoke to Eve:
“Depart from Eden. Turn your back on bliss.
You shall now serve this man, be under his rule,
In awe of his authority, in fear of his force. 1020
You will suffer for your sin, atone for your evil,
Experience death, bear sons and daughters
In pain and sorrow in this world of woe.”
Then the eternal Lord spoke again to Adam—
&nbs
p; The Source of light had a dark message: 1025
“Seek another homeland outside of Eden,
A house of unhappiness on sorrow’s road,
As a naked outcast, wandering in exile,
Deprived of all the pleasures of paradise.
Your soul and body are bound to be separated, 1030
For the wages of sin are suffering and death.
You shall live by your labor, tilling the land,
Eating what you grow in the good earth,
Earning your bread by the sweat of your brow
Until that dreaded disease called death, 1035
That inescapable illness you ate in the apple,
Worms its dark way through your decadent body,
Clutching your heart in a grim death-hold.”
Listen, as we hear how endless affliction
And mortal misery became the lot of mankind. 1040
The Guardian of glory, our Lord and Creator,
Dressed the couple in clothes, covering their bodies,
Concealing their shame—then commanded them
To depart from paradise to discover a life
Constrained by need. At the Lord’s authority, 1045
An angel followed with a sword of fire,
Closing the gates of their joy-filled home,
Their place in paradise of peace and pleasure.
No man or woman who is guilty of sin
Can pass through those gates. God’s guardian angel 1050
Patrols that pathway, protecting paradise,
A powerful warden who stands before
The doors of glory, the life of bliss.
Yet almighty God never intended
To withdraw all favor from Adam and Eve, 1055
Withholding the care and comfort of creation,
Even though they had rebelled against him.
Instead he left the heavenly roof
Studded with holy stars and the day-sun’s
Sustaining light, the bright sky-candle. 1060
He ordered the earth and sea to produce
Meat and fruit to sustain the couple
In their worldly needs. After their sin
They lived in a land less abounding than Eden,
A country of care, a world of woe. 1065
They regretted their sin, reliving their shame.
Then at God’s command they produced children,
Cain and Abel, two noble sons.
Books tell us how those willing brothers
Toiled each day, tilling and herding, 1070
Amassing a wealth of grain and goods.
The firstborn, Cain, farmed the land.
The second, Abel, helped his father herd
The family flocks. At harvest time,
They both brought offerings to the Lord. 1075
Abel offered the best beast he had,
While Cain gave the worst grain to God.
The Prince of angels, the King of creation,
Looked down kindly on Abel’s sacrifice
But wouldn’t consider the chaff of Cain. 1080
Anger and envy entered Cain’s heart.
He thought he had been insulted by God.
He hated his brother. His rage rose up,
His hand struck down, killing his kin,
The innocent Abel. That was unwise. 1085
Then middle-earth swallowed the bitter gore
Of brotherly blood. After that death-stroke
More evil arose, a progeny of crime.
From that branch grew abominable fruit
On tenacious vines twisting the hearts 1090
Of the children of men. Feuds flourished,
Murders multiplied, grief grew wild.
Mankind may well lament this history
Of willful sin and wicked slaying.
Ruin was forever rampant on earth 1095
After Eve injured all of mankind
With her evil sin after Adam was awakened
By the quickening breath from the Shaper’s mouth,
And they tasted that baleful, forbidden fruit.
Then the Lord of glory approached Cain, 1100
Asking where on earth his brother Abel
Might be found. The worthless murder-maker,
Sin-shaper, devised this devious reply:
“Am I my brother Abel’s keeper?
How can I know his comings and goings? 1105
How can I keep track of my kinsman’s journey?”
Then the Prince of angels, the righteous Ruler,
Almighty God, spoke again to Abel:
“Why did you strike down your own kin
With a heart of rage and hands of wrath, 1110
Bury your brother in a slaughter-bed?
You have savagely killed my faithful servant,
And his blood cries out in anguish to me.
For this murderous deed you shall suffer
Pain and punishment, exile and agony, 1115
Endlessly cursed without recourse.
The earth will not offer you fruit or grain,
Bountiful gifts to sustain your needs,
Because you have bloodied her growing-ground
With violent hands. For this cold killing 1120
You must leave the country, flee from your family,
Wander in exile without kith or kin,
Deprived of grace, abhorrent to everyone.”
Then Cain answered his Creator and Judge:
“I expect no pity, no mercy from my Maker. 1125
I have forfeited your favor, compassion, and care.
Now my feet must wander a woeful road.
I can expect only enmity from everyone
Who will endlessly hate me and remind me
With cruel hostility of my own crime. 1130
I murdered my brother, shedding his blood
On the innocent earth. Now banish me
From both my family and my fair homeland.
This feud is fixed. A killer will come
To murder me also. Cursed by my crime, 1135
My unholy sin, I will pass out of sight.”
The Lord of virtue and victory responded:
“There’s no easy exit for your endless suffering,
No early death for a brother-destroyer.
You’ll be a marked man, not easily murdered. 1140
If anyone slays you, he will soon find
Sevenfold vengeance upon his head.”
Then the glorious Creator set a peace-sign,
A mark of immunity, on that killer Cain,
Lest some other assassin should ease his pain, 1145
Steal his suffering, unwind his woe.
The Lord ordered that unholy brother
To depart from his mother, his kith and kin.
Then Cain walked away from the sight of God,
Condemned to wander an exile’s road, 1150
An outcast and outlaw without friends and family.
He went east to live far from his father,
Where a beautiful woman bore heirs for him.
His firstborn son was named Enoch.
The family built a great stronghold, 1155
The first fortified city of sword-wielding men.
Then the generations after Enoch arose—
His firstborn son was named Jarad.
This was the beginning of the race of Cain.
After Jarad, Mahalalel was keeper 1160
Of his father’s inheritance until he died.
Then his son Methuselah kept control,
Sharing the family treasure with his kin,
Son after son, until old and wise
In accumulated years, he passed away. 1165
His son Lamech became the new lord,
Took the family hoard and household goods.
His two wives, Adah and Zillah,
Bore him heirs in his homeland.
One of Lamech’s sons was called Jabal,
1170
Who first awoke the sounds of the harp
With his cunning hands, making melody.
Another son of Lamech called Tubal-Cain
Was a master-smith, the first of his kind
To shape farm implements of iron and brass, 1175
Endlessly useful to the children of men.
His craft was cunning, his skill unsurpassed.
Lamech once told his two wives,
Adah and Zillah, a miserable story
Of family murder, confessing his crime: 1180
“I murdered a man, an ancient relative,
By killing Cain. He was my kin,
The son of Adam, father of Enoch,
Slayer of Abel. I stained my hands
And my brooding heart with this bloody crime. 1185
I watered the ground with his red gore.
I know I will suffer God’s sevenfold vengeance
For this kin-killing when I pass on.”
A righteous son was born to Adam
In Abel’s stead—his name was Seth. 1190
He was prosperous and blessed, a true comfort
To his father and mother, Adam and Eve.
His father, the first of men, said prayerfully:
“The God of victories, the Lord of life,
Has offered me another beloved son 1195
To replace the boy that Cain killed.
Now my mind is free from mourning,
The sore grief in my heart is gone.
I give God thanks for this precious gift.”
So Adam’s line was brought to life again 1200
When he had lived one hundred thirty years.
Writings tell us that he increased his family
With sons and daughters for eight hundred years
And lived to be nine hundred thirty,
When his spirit parted from this earthly life. 1205
Then his son Seth succeeded Adam.
He ruled his father’s realm and took a wife.
He was one hundred five when he first began
To produce heirs. His eldest son,
Enosh, was the first of the children of men 1210
To call on the hallowed name of God
Since Adam walked on the green grass
Of paradise, endowed with a living soul.
Seth prospered, begetting sons and daughters
For eight hundred seven years until he died. 1215
After the earth had swallowed up the body
Of the seed-bearing Seth, Enosh held the inheritance.
He was dear to the Lord and lived ninety years
Before he began to bear children with his wife
Through bed-play, that is married intercourse. 1220
To him Kenan was born, heir of the realm.
After that he lived eight hundred fifteen years,
Begetting many sons and daughters before he died
At the ripe old age of nine hundred five.
He was a wise and ancient patriarch. 1225