anathema A Tragedy in Seven Scenes 11
DAVID.
Is that how you answer your mother, Rosa?
ROSA.
_Stopping._
Why do you despise my beauty, father?
DAVID.
Before, I used to love your beauty, Rosa.
SARAH.
_With indignation._
What did you say, David?
DAVID.
Yes, Sarah. I love the pearl when it is on the bottom of the sea; but
after it is taken out of the sea, it becomes blood--and then I do not
like pearls, Sarah.
ROSA.
Why do you despise my beauty, father? Do you know what another girl in
my place would have done? She would have lost her mind and would have
whirled about on earth like a dog that swallowed a pin. But what am I
doing? I am studying, father. I am studying by day and night, father.
_In great agitation._
I don't know anything. I don't know how to speak, I don't even know how
to walk--I stoop, I stoop as I walk.
SARAH.
That isn't true, Rosa.
ROSA.
_Agitated._
Here I have forgotten myself for a while, and I am shouting, I am
croaking hoarsely, like a crow that has caught cold. I want to be
beautiful--that's what I was born for. You laugh? It is in vain. Do you
know that your daughter will be a duchess, a princess? I want to add a
scepter to my crown!
ANATHEMA.
Oho!
_All three go out. David jumps from his seat angrily and paces the room
quickly._
DAVID.
What a comedy, Nullius! Yesterday she begged Heaven for a herring,
and to-day a crown is not enough for her. To-morrow she will take the
throne away from Satan and will sit upon it, Nullius, and she will sit
firmly! What a comedy!
_Anathema has changed the __EXPRESSION__ of his face;
he is stern and morose._
ANATHEMA.
No, David Leizer, it is a tragedy.
DAVID.
'Tis a comedy, Nullius, a comedy. Don't you hear the laughter of Satan
in all this?
_Pointing at the door._
You saw a corpse dancing--I see it every morning.
ANATHEMA.
Is Naum so dangerously ill?
DAVID.
Dangerously ill? Three physicians, three serious gentlemen, examined
him yesterday and told me quietly that in a month from now Naum will
die, that he is already more than half a corpse. And every morning
I see in this white marble parlor a corpse jumping to the tune of
music--is it not a dream, Nullius? Is it not the laughter of Satan?
ANATHEMA.
And what did they say about your health, David?
DAVID.
I did not ask them. I don't want them to tell me. You may also jump to
the tune of music, David. How would you like it, Nullius: two corpses
dancing in a white marble hall?
_He laughs bitterly._
ANATHEMA.
You frighten me, my friend. What is going on within your soul?
DAVID.
Do not touch my soul, Nullius--there is horror in it!
_Clasps his head._
Oh! what shall I do? What shall I do? I am alone in the whole world.
ANATHEMA.
What ails you, David? Calm yourself.
DAVID.
_Stopping before Anathema, horror-stricken._
Death, Nullius, death! You have brought us death. Was I not mute before
the face of Death? Did I not wait for it as for a friend? But here
you have brought us riches--and I want to dance. I want to dance,
yet death clutches at my heart; I want to eat, for hunger has entered
my very bones,--but my old stomach refuses to accept any food; I want
to laugh, but my face is sobbing, my eyes are weeping, and my soul is
crying with mortal fear. Hunger has crept into my bones, and poison is
already in my blood--there is no salvation for me; Death has overtaken
me.
ANATHEMA.
_Significantly._
The poor are waiting for you, David.
DAVID.
What matters it?
ANATHEMA.
The poor are waiting for you, David.
DAVID.
The poor are always waiting.
ANATHEMA.
_Sternly._
Now I see that you are really lost, David. God has forsaken you.
_David stops and looks at him, surprised and angry.
Anathema, with head thrown back haughtily, meets
his look calmly and sternly. Silence._
DAVID.
You say this to me, Nullius?
ANATHEMA.
Yes, I say this to you, David Leizer. Beware, David Leizer, you are in
Satan's hands.
DAVID.
_Terrified._
Nullius, my friend, you frighten me. What have I done to deserve
your anger and these cruel, terrible words of yours? You have always
treated me and my children so kindly.... Your hair is just as grey
as mine, in your face I have long observed a hidden grief, and--I
respect you, Nullius! Why are you silent? A terrible fire is burning
in your eyes.--Who are you, Nullius? But you are silent.--No, no, do
not lower your eyes, I am even more terrified when they are lowered,
for then upon your brow appear fiery letters of some vague--of some
terrible--fatal truth.
ANATHEMA.
_Tenderly._
David!
DAVID.
_Joyously._
You have started to speak, Nullius.
ANATHEMA.
Be silent and listen to me. From madness I will bring you back to
wisdom, from death to life.
DAVID.
I am silent and I am listening.
ANATHEMA.
Your madness consists of this, David Leizer,--you have sought for God
all your life, and when God came to you, you said: "I do not know You."
Your death consists of this, David Leizer,--blinded by misfortunes,
like a horse that is turning around in the darkness, you failed to
notice the people and you remained in their midst alone, with your
illness and your riches. There in the yard Life is waiting for you--and
you, blind man, you close the door against it. Dance, David, dance,--
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