Canticle on the Exarchy
XXXVI
The Word of the Lord came to Abram by a vision,
Saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector,
And thy reward exceeding great.
Where we had settled the night, we by dawn were awake and in prayer,
While I beat on my breast in repentance, the rabbi was hidden;
After I rose from my place I so found him no penitent-sharer,
Lowered his hands and reclaimed for our travels our animals ridden,
Only a donkey and foal for supplies, and we measured by far lines
Lengths of horizon penumbra to which overhead constellations,
Marking our journey to Babylon solar-betwixt to the star-signs
Almost complete, so we saddled, regrouped to our caravan stations,
Thence we proceeded to travel in silence, our walk as the east-bound,
Watching the day break over the land in our eyes’ destination,
Blinding us more to the land-scape; antelope stags and the beasts found
East of the Sea all awakening, feeling the prey’s trepidation
Watching us march to respective, unwitting desserts, us as blinded,
Ignorant toward the other as what the another was thinking
Toward ourselves, but we held it respectfully, guardedly-minded,
(Lest it be only myself); on occasion we stopped for a drinking,
Carefully turned to the cusps of the earth and horizons regarding,
Shying the busier paths so we might well travel with pleasure
Rather than fear for our donkeys were not strong horses with barding,
Neither us two men mighty enough by realistic a measure
That we could fight; we preferred if the trouble were lion or mire,
These were at least known quantities that were our slight expectations
When so contrasted with bandits and armies in wait to retire,
Pouncing us, leaving us each in the dust to our dry lacerations,
Lest it be thus, we are bidden to crude roads otherwise tread not,
Reining our beasts with a hand and the character fitting a master
Driving our caravan forth to our last destination, the dreadnaught,
Babylon, when I, remembering grinning and bright alabaster,
Saw on the face of the mountains the self-same countenance fearful
North of the ripple of mountains allotted the west of the black hills
Cast to the north of the arid expanse we were trudging uncheerful,
Ceasing the story for some time, neither us rhyming in dactyls,
Leaving us wordless for hours or days with no speeches endearing,
Though for the rabbi, he seemed to me more than content, if but heartless
Keeping his silence, and though he elicited much in my hearing
When he was telling his story of Abram before, we were chartless;
Maybe his pressing concerns were of things elemental,
Not I suppose on a story, but once in the sight of the Titans,
Babylon’s ziggurats, shortly in wistful a tone, sentimental,
This strange rabbi continued his tale to describe, to enlighten:
This was the sight, he began, of the city our father regarded
Once as he westward was headed, and now as the sun is behind us,
What can we say on man? for he, durably-hearted,
Weathered the road as we walked from Babylon, seeing its blindness
While the sun was uncradled and evening had set on the River
Marking the bound’ry between two worlds, and whatever its nature,
Heeded the call to abandon his father on a reason’ble sliver,
Merely a morsel he heard, known barely divine nomenclature
Governing these laws over domin’ons and planets and motions,
Evenso ventured abroad by the gathering winds of direction
Guiding his walk, and his kindred who followed his leave from the oceans
Wondered but little of what had occurred for his sudden ejection,
Leaving his home-land scarcely with tears or a proper departure,
Living subsistence on lands he was strange to, fearing no famine,
Neither reprisal, nor stones from a sling nor the darts of the archer,
Leaving in flight so it seemed, in a haste with no time to examine,
Bringing Sarai for his wife, who obliged him of marriage-redemption,
That she was barren but Abram redeemed her, as duty was fitting;
Might we consider a man, who considered himself no exemption?
Abram was righteous, indeed, but the God he pursued to his bidding
Stirred in him this same action, the mystery made by transcendence:
God can create in us good and inspire the good of our own deeds,
That in his marriage the man was regarding no further descendants,
Not by his lusts, but by oath; and in trusting the Lord as His road leads,
Stayed to His paths, for the loss of his home-land Abram conceded
Feeling remorse for his brethren abandoned to Nimr’d and others,
Caring to hold on the one guarantee for his soul undefeated,
Swayed not toward the peace of the city, and better than brothers,
Better than fathers, he relished to swerve to a road of ancestral pretensions,
Then he alone was a Hebrew, a man with a hope to inherit
Something reposed for the children of man, and no earthly inventions,
Ziggurat, politics, peace or refusal suffices to merit;
Nimr’d, distressed by his dreams, on the new of his absence absconded,
Seeking his father Terah, with the hope he could garner persuasion,
Giving the task to detain him; Terah reconsidered, responded:
King of the West, I believe it behooves me on such an occasion
That I remind thee now, for the curse as thou dreamed is outstanding,
Still I am bid to obey, and to lodge my descendants in safety:
See, I am father to three, and what thou art broadly demanding
Makes for me difficult tasks, for my son has rejected me lately,
This was dismissed by the emperor, sending Terah on his mission:
Occupy Abram and keep him from traveling far on the pasture;
Wherefore Terah to his son went, seeking to heal the division
That he could send word east if the four sensed pending disaster;
Abram and what he possessed were a slow way gone on the road west,
Making it quick for Terah to accede him and speak him in right peace,
Saying, I come to thee son as it stands, on the brink of my own quest
Staving the spear from the mountains of Babylon’s tribes in the high peaks,
Watching with vengeance, the consequence borne by a prosperous province,
Which we ourselves have contributed, which said Abram, I am certain
That I have heard from the Most High God a condition, a promise,
Only permitted to righteous a man and believing a person,
Nothing can turn me the left or the right, and Terah was astounded,
Saying, Thou runnest, my son, to a land with no fountains?
Idols and deserts and mud but no rivers as once had surrounded
Everyth’ng owned by us? even thou leavest thy king to the mountains
Brimming with envy? and Abram responded, o hear my decision,
Therefore, from what I have heard: I abhor to dishonor a lord’s hand,
Even an emperor tested by idols, but, said with concision,
What I am worried with is mine own soul; am I sowing on sore land
Speaking as much? for iniquity, like one man’s overfishing,
Steals from the next generation their due, and the land of their placement
Greatly betrays its successors by slaving in sin, so my wishing,
Father, is simple: the few and the humble, avoiding effacement
Coming for each of their kindred, are seeking the bounty of virtue
Found in abandoning what is familiar-faced for the pallid,
Even accursed, for no prophet is welcomed in homes they occur to,
Rather they only appear as a stranger to come to be valid,
Thus as I sought to be God’s own prologue, in dark ruminations,
This had occurred to me, reaping a harvest requires its seeding,
Wherefore I leave home, knowing no matter the grand elevations,
Grand depths, even encounters with nephilim tribes and their breeding;
Father, I heard in a clear way God’s own Word, He was calling:
Something awaits us a ways, and if heaven selects, who disputes it?
Which had Terah in vexation, who said, But thy homel’nd is falling,
Abram! and tower be damned, once heaven forgives, who imputes it?
What hast thou done to deserve from the Lord of the armies of powers?
Hearest thou what thine father permits and his matters to see to,
Which is as much for thy own; and no longer be talking of towers,
Neither of visions, but only of righteousness — which he agreed to.
avoiding the roads • Babylon in sight
the call of Abram • Terah sent to recall him
confounding the call • Abram obeys