Page:Thea von Harbou Metropolis eng 1927.pdf/37

 METROPOLIS mangled by eternal watchfulness. with bones, the marrow of which was being sucked out by eternally making the same turn of the lever to eternally the same rhythm, with face scorched by unbearable heat, and in the skin of which the salty sweat tore its devouring furrows? Did he not live in a town which lay deeper under the .earth than the underground stations of Metropolis, with their thousand .shafts-in a town th~ houses of which storied just as high above squares and streets as, above in the night, did the houses of Metropolis, which towered so high, ODe above the other? Had he ever known anything else than the horrible sobriety of these houses. in which there lived not men, but numbers, recognisable only by the enormous placards by the housedoors? Had his life ever had any purpose other than to go out from these doors, framed with numbers, out to work, when the sirens of Metropolis howled for him-and ten hours later, crushed and tired to death. to stumble into the house by the door of which his number stood? Was he. himself, anything but a number-number 11811crammed into his linen, his clothes. his cap? Had not the number also become imprinted into his soul; into his brain. into his blood, that he must even stop and think of his own name? And now-? And now-? His body refreshed by pure cold waler which had washed the sweat of labour from him, felt, with wonderful sweetness, the yielding relaxation of all his muscles. With a quiver which rendered all his muscles weak he felt the caressing touch of white silk on the bare skin of his body, and, while giving himself up to the gentle, even rhythm of the motion. the consciousness of the first and complete deliverance from all that which had put so agonising a pressure on his existence overcame him with so overpowering a force that he burst out into the laughter of a madman. his tears falling uncontrollably. Violently, aye, with a glorious violence, the great city 42