Page:Five Russian plays and one Ukrainian.pdf/191

Rh : Thinkest, the treasures of Canaan? See, I have bread for this day's supper.


 * Surely, for songs that praised Babylon's power thou hast earned more than one golden ring?


 * The vile speaks only with poison, but poison hurts not every man. When heardest me sing songs of the Babylonian glory and might? (The youth is silent and ashamed.) Thou hast judged thyself by thy silence.


 * Eleazar, it may be thy songs are good in Babylon, but Misraim and Edom and all their tongues will not bring Palestine to mind and awake the thought of Jerusalem.


 * Is there already need to bring it to our minds?


 * Not to us, but to those that among foes have used to speak the foreign speechspeech. [sic]


 * How will they understand the inborn song? How sing it in a foreign speech?


 * With thy foreign words thou wilt forget to say, "Jerusalem!" (Eleazar stands thoughtfully. His hand begins to touch the strings of his harp, and his voice sounds, neither singing, nor wailing, as of one who sleeps.)