Page:Five Russian plays and one Ukrainian.pdf/189

Rh : The merciful king wished to reward me generously.


 * What gave he thee, Eleazar?


 * He gave me a chamber in his palace and Jewish captives, as many as I would. From that moment I cursed the songs that get tears from conquerors; they are the tears of the Nile’s crocodiles.


 * Thou shouldst have sung them of the fame of our ancestors, that they might know the strength of our people.


 * I sang.


 * And what? (Eleazar is silent.)


 * Say, Eleazar, how the strangers heard the songs of fame.

(slowly): One of them whistled and, smiling, shook his head. Another said, “Not all that is true.” A third bade me join the military singers; and all, one after the other, said, “Is there only that in the world which is in Jerusalem? Knowest thou no songs of Edom, of Misraim ? Was not the fame of Amalek, Ammon and Amareus as the past fame of Israel?”


 * O Lord, chastise the hostile lips with the dumbness of death.