Page:Poet Lore, volume 34, 1923.djvu/544



Sholom Asch's heart prayed one day, and it was answered.

"And it was, that when I opened my eyes I saw a woman standing before me, and she was naked and barefoot.

"Her breasts were full and hidden in the stalks of the field, and her head was adorned with the fruit of the earth, and her shame was covered with the leaves of the fig tree.

" And it was, as she approached me, I hid my face in the surface of the earth, and asked: 'Who art thou?'

"She answered me: 'I am the god thou hast asked for. I am the mother of all creation, the fruition that creates from endlessness to endlessness I am the source of all life, and I am called "What Is". Thy prayer have I heard, and I have come to thee because thou hast called me.

" 'To other gods man has turned, and the god his creator he has not recognized.

For what is man, if not one of my creations, drawing his sustenance from the earth, coming from her and returning to her, in accordance with the years?

" 'Other prophets have prophesied in the names of the gods of heaven. Thee I anoint as the prophet of the god of earth. From the preface to Earth.

The god of Sholom Asch is indeed a kind matron, with full, hunger appeasing breasts, and soft, gentle eyes. She is of an uncouth appearance: her plain face, her heavy limbs, and her big red hands betray a peasant origin; but her glowing, generous heart throbs with godly solicitude. She is Eve, the mother of life, embracing all living things with infinite love, nursing her offspring with full-breasted joy. And Sholom Asch worships her with all his soul; and in his prayers are commingled the devotedness of the son and the passion of the youthful lover.

The imagination of Sholom Asch is primitively exuberant, poetically naïve. Its roots are earth-bound; the smell of the soil ever accompanies it. As an artist, therefore, Asch speaks truest when he speaks of his sensuous love of life, of life that is exultant in its vicissitudinary manifestations. His implicit faith in the goodness and motherliness of nature brings serenity,