THE APOCALYPSE

BY TORSTEN SCHWANKE


Persons:

Adam, husband and father

Eve, wife and mother

The sons Quintus, Georg, Thomas, Simeon & Maximilian

Lili, neighbour

Jesus Christ


Place: The village of Hage in idyllic East Frisia, a romantic farmhouse with flower garden and fruit trees


Time: Uncertain, known only to the Eternal Father



SCENE 1


(Adam and Eve in their garden, the sons are playing football, except for Quintus who is reading a book).


ADAM

Beloved! If I knew the world would end tomorrow,

I'd be safe in God, safe in God's bosom

And plant the most beautiful apple tree today.

Beloved, truly you are more beautiful than my dream!

EVE

You gave me these two apple trees,

I'll plant them in our garden today,

The pair of apple trees can thus pollinate each other!

O love in the world! O happiness of woman and man!

ADAM

Currant bush with your fruit freshness,

You strawberry plants too and sweet raspberry bushes,

When the spring wind snatches you as a dear paramour,

Then I know well how Thomas loves to eat of you.

EVE

Ask children only for happiness, not great gifts of grace

The happy child desires, if only the baker's shop

Offers the cake, the sweet carrot,

The child's cheek turns red with happiness and joy.

ADAM

The first-born son studies in his book,

Studying wisdom's word, and knows no curse,

Our son Quintus is devoted to the book and its wisdom,

The philosopher's stone through him may yet make us gold.

EVE

Of gold I will not, poverty's pious school

Teach us to trust in God, my beloved paramour.

Even if we are poor, by God, in the beautiful evening glow

We certainly thank God for the dear supper.

ADAM

With cheese from the cow, with cheese from the sheep,

Olives too, so we can sleep peacefully,

So we thank the Lord who gave us this food,

And goat's cheese too, and all without rennet.

EVE

Vegetables fresh and green and crunchy salads,

What has a king more in his great state?

The sunflower seed, the blond wheat grain,

Plus the red wine, your horn overflows!

ADAM

The sun laughs at this, the virgin in the sun

Gives us her blessing, which is sweetness and delight

And life for us, I pray her greeting

And kiss the Virgin's foot piously full of humility!


(Lili enters the garden)


EVE

O Lili, neighbour, how are things in your hut?

There you live so alone and yet in a pious manner!

LILI

But I bring you news of the world's weather storm,

Whether of ivory too my tower hermit-like.

EVE

You can give me joy with chit-chat.

What would a woman rather hear than news?

LILI

An attempt has been made on the Pope's life in Rome!

That is only the beginning of the painful woes!

ADAM

O Jesus! Has the pope survived this outrage?

How Satan stinks of sour poison and sulphur!

EVE

Yes, say it, Lili, whether the Pope has survived?

How my heart trembles! My full bosom trembles!

LILI

The shot was fired by an Islamist,

The murder of the head of the Christians was planned.

But just as the shot was fired, the Pope bent down

And looked at an image of the Madonna full of love!

Wounded is the Pope, but thank God he is alive,

Though he must suffer the wound's pain miserably.

EVE

Has the Pope already spoken a word about this assassination?

LILI

He said, Forgiveness is the law in the divine state,

He wanted to forgive the perpetrator with all his heart,

Mary he thanked and Jesus for his life.

ADAM

The labour pains are coming now! The enemy of life wants

To destroy Christianity, which lives quietly in the land.

Where has peace gone in our little Eden?

Beloved Eve, I will pray to Mary!


(Adam goes aside to a small Madonna in the garden and prays)


Mary, I want to consecrate myself to your heart,

I give myself completely to you and beg you from the bottom of my heart,

Accept my sacrifice and give us peace soon,

Give us the kingdom of peace in this world,

Give us your son, give us the light of love,

That without world war, if it can, collapse

Death's culture, the kingdom of the Antichrist!

Invoke Jesus with your mother's breasts!



SCENE II


QUINTUS

My brother Thomas has shot his ball

On this my new book, but I hate all

The football players! God, what do they know of the book?

But I feel like a bitter curse!

THOMAS

It was just an accident. I have apologised.

It was only my ball that paid homage to the wisdom book.

And playing football is a game without guilt,

If you don't cultivate the cult of the football god.

MAXIMILIAN

Ah, that hurts! No, George, that's bad!

You didn't learn that from Father Adam's Bible!

What, brother, do you think you can hurt me so badly?

I think I'll tell Father Adam that now.

SIMEON

Why do you torment us so? We suffer together now.

O George, but you, you are lonely as a doer.

GEORGE

You provoked me! That's what you get for it!

You grinned like clowns at the carnival of Cologne.

ADAM

Quiet, all you boys, quiet! What, wild boys, you have

For dragon hearts, for forked serpent tongues!

EVE

You react too harshly, beloved Adam mine,

You must forgive the boys their quarrels and strife.

How then to tame the rage of stirred impulses

Of hot-flamed anger? Only through gentle love!

ADAM

There is only rebellion in the world now!

The child reviles the mother, the father reviles the son!

No wonder, then, that revolutionaries

Overthrow the order, rebellious guns

Now make politics, in every place on earth

Violence rules brutally, and instead of law, murder.

Latin America has its wild gangs,

The terrorists already with power in all lands

Establish their regime, their state law is terror,

Politics is violence and culture is horror.

The Indians and the peasants suffer misery,

Since there is money for guns, but not for bread.

The terrorists lurk wildly in every corner,

The mother and child die of thirst and starvation.

The frenzied music is without glamour,

A wild feast of death, a black dance of death.

The poets no longer sing of love, of kisses,

The poets' loud noise is now like pistol shots.

And in Africa, too, there is nothing but civil war,

The black military asserts its victory,

Rome's Christians gather in catacombs as they once did,

The earth is strewn with mines and bombs.

Children are already fighting in the armies,

Every child that steps on the mine is torn to shreds!

The army and the brutal cudgel now rule there,

Many children are seen there as ruined cripples!

Mother Asia, Mother Asia

Never saw so much violence and rebellion.

In Asia once all the clocks stood still,

But now time marches to the beat of dictatorships,

Rebel dictatorship is the rule of the mob,

And one dictatorship eats another rule.

No sooner does the rebellion triumph, the revolutionaries

Eat themselves up, they know no honour,

The sanctity of life is alien to the rebels,

They worship as god the dictator's shirt.

In Russia the nationalists are now in power,

Gone is the Tsar's empire, gone is the right of suffrage,

In Russia they now no longer believe in God,

For Russia the world is an evil and a mockery,

Europe they threaten and they threaten China!

EVE

Mary, morning star, O Stella Matutina!

We consecrate in prayer and atonement and penance

Great Russia to thee, old Mother Rusj!

ADAM

And therefore I will strictly educate the flock of sons!

Not all shall be forgiven at once and in vain!

With fatherly dignity and with severity, but justly,

I'll teach the sons how honourable justice is!

EVE

By the justice of the earnest stern father

The sons in the play of life‘s theatre

Only learn strict justice, but gentleness, meekness

The mother teaches them the Lord's mercy.

As a mother I only want to embrace the sons,

So let them learn the divine mercy!

ADAM

But too gentle and soft and too honeyed,

Do not preserve the children's paradise.

With authority speak a word, show them their limits!

Life is not lust alone and lazy leniency!

EVE

The world is hard enough, there flows no sweet wine!

There they drink the poison, there they eat the stone!

But I will be with milk and honey and butter

Merciful, that is the mother's duty of love!



SCENE III


(Walking along the forest path)


ADAM

How I love to walk with you hand in hand,

When quietly and silently you walk through our land,

When jokingly before us dear Thomas runs merrily,

How blissful then am I with you on earth!

EVE

Speak your word to me, and speak only of wisdom,

Speak of the divinity, of the divine nature,

I ask for thy word, I may gladly listen to thee

And will exchange ideas with thee in one spirit.

THOMAS

My father Adam, do you know that we are shadows,

That shadow is man and woman, that shadow is the child?

The true being is much greater than the shadow,

The inside of the world of children and spouses

Is greater than the world. The outside is small,

But I look within in spirit,

The inside of the onion is bigger than the skin.

But I didn't get that from my children's Bible.

ADAM

How wise you are and wise in your childhood!

A great wise man and deeply learned Christian!

THOMAS

Now I'm away, away alone through the dark!

I hear Titania and her fairies talking.


(Thomas runs away)


EVE

I'm worried, though, if he's not under some evil spell

Of evil sorcery the bogeyman catches him!

The evil uncle walks through deep black nights,

The children he ravishes, the wicked unjust!

ADAM

Don't worry, woman, his angel will protect

Little Thomas thine, the angel's weapon flashes,

He draws his sword from its golden scabbard!

Comfort, thou dear wife, thou my eye's delight!

EVE

No, not comforted, my husband, I am in great distress!

Is our Thomas murdered and dead already?

Then for me there would be no more day and no more tomorrow!

I am in great fear, in sorrowful worries!

My Thomas, come back! Where are you, dear child?

Think how worried your parents are now!

Come, Adam, come quickly, we want to look for Thomas!

Is he by the pond under the shelter of the old beech trees?


(Lili and Thomas come towards them)


LILI

Here is your dear son. Has he lost his way?

But calmly in the tree the turtledove is singing.

EVEA

My son, my dear son, I have found you!

How tormented the pain in my soul wounds!

THOMAS

Why then, little mother? My angel watches over me,

Who is much lighter than the deep midnight.

LILI

It is the time of escape. As Thomas fled,

So also in this time soldiers dreadfully threaten,

The anti-Christian soldiers invaded

Into Rome's Vatican with roar and with shrine,

To destroy in the Vatican the Venus

And Apollo too, Apollo of Belvedere,

Oh that I jest! Humour, how thou dost delight!

But today the Pope has fled from the army!

ADAM

Where has the Pope fled, the shepherd of the flock?

LILI

Am I the hostess then, that I entertain the pope?

I have a presentiment in my mind, my son,

The Pope has fled to beautiful Avignon.

In exile there, the Pope there in exile,

He plays with wisdom the pearl games of the mind.

But soon he returns, the shepherd returns

In Rome's Vatican, then happiness smiles on us.

EVE

My beloved husband, I hear from Avignon,

Then I remember how we once in our pavilion

Drinking cider from Avignon, the sweet,

Which I brought you from France's paradise.

ADAM

Yes, loving wife, it makes me feel loved,

Then my heart thought, If my Eve gives me

Wine of apple juice, Adam wine to drink,

When together we see the wine flash in the glass,

Then she does love me, she has thought of me.

So I gladly drank the wine with you in the quiet night.


(Lili leaves)


EVE

And is it true, my husband, when men drink wine,

That all women then flash as fair as nymphs?

ADAM

Yes, when I drank the wine I thought of Lili

And found Lili beautiful too, though not as beautiful as you,

Lili, too, had a certain beauty about her,

But you were so beautiful, I think of you and groan,

You were so beautiful, like a goddess,

I was breathless with the power of your beauty!



SCENE IV


(Adam and Eve alone in the garden at night drinking wine)


ADAM

The wine was sent to me by a dear friend and brother,

I drink not of wine with a loose slut,

I drink not the wine of vulgar adultery,

I drink not noble wine with the poison of cursing,

Not dragon slobber wine, I drink the grape blood

With my dear wife and drink to the highest good!

EVE

What is the Highest Good, the ultimate goal of life,

The deepest desire of the heart, the highest goal of aspiration?

ADAM

One calls it that, the other calls it that,

Bliss in God, I read somewhere,

Is the goal of man, but other sons of men

Glorify the beautiful as the goal of all love.

Knowledge of God is the highest, dear woman,

So some say, looking forward to the sight of God.

I think the highest happiness for all earthly shoots,

That in eternity is the beautiful love of God.

EVE

But everyone thinks of God in his own way,

One thinks of God as a great mother, tender,

The other thinks of God as a wise loving father,

So each one thinks of God in his own way.

ADAM

God as the Creator has breathed into the soul,

God gives each soul what that soul needs,

God imprints Himself within the soul,

There lives an image of God within without flaw.

In your soul's core, O dear wife,

Lives pure and spotless an image as God's vision,

That is all thine own. So only your soul sees

The one dear God. Do not choose other paths,

But thy own way to the inward God.

In the heart you see God, when unstained by mockery

You sink into God in inner prayers.

In your soul is still today the Garden of Eden,

In the evening God walks in the garden full of light

And to the beloved bride as bridegroom speaks.

God is splendour to some, God is clarity to others,

God is one man's mercy, God is another man's truth,

To one, righteousness; to another, grace,

To one, eternity, and to another, bliss,

The highest happiness, the most beautiful pleasure,

God is to that wisdom and to that beautiful love.

All this is the Lord, the One, without mockery,

As many gods there are as there are images of God.

EVE

My dear husband, what is that glow

There in the dark night, the black night, the damp?


(A strange light appears in the sky, perhaps a comet)


ADAM

It is not a normal star and is also not a planet,

It's a sign from God, a glowing comet!

EVE

A sign of judgement? Will now in celestial fires

God the sinful earth burn and renew?

ADAM

Now comes the judgment, now comes the judge's wrath?

EVE

Mankind is in fear! The wicked are lost!

ADAM

Mary, God's bride, I greet you with pious greetings.

EVE

Mankind, pray and bring forth the fruits of thy repentance!

ADAM

Mankind does not pray, they do not pray to God,

In blasphemy they blaspheme full of mockery,

In this excess of sinfulness and wickedness

Repentance the Lord lays on shoulders of the righteous.

As vicars we plead for all sinners

To God: Mercy in these grievous woes!

EVE

Have mercy, Jesus! Have mercy, Jesus Christ!

Let mercy overflow from your breasts!

Mercy, mercy alone, you hero,

Mercy, philanthropist, mercy on the world!

Give mercy to the West-Indians and to the East-Indians,

Show mercy to all children,

In first innocence yet they are clean from sins,

Have mercy in the judgment of the dear little children,

Give mercy to the God-created boys,

To the dear girls, too, give the gift of thy mercy,

The children of Europe and the children of Africa,

The children of Asia, the two Americas,

To the pious daughters, to the youthful beauties,

Lord, bestow your love on the well-beloved sons!

Lord, give grace to Quintus, forgive his sin,

Lord, Thomas give pardon, show thy favour,

Lord, to George give strength, and give him thy power,

And Maximilian and Simeon, the works

Of the Lord's creative power, keep them in thy favour,

Adam, too, in thy wisdom keep him and in thy art,

I give thee my heart, at the quivering of my breasts,

My Saviour and my God, beloved Jesus Christ!



SCENE 5


(Eve sits in the hut on an armchair, Thomas on her lap, in her arms, she caresses him. Adam stands outside the window, smoking a cigarette. Through the window he watches Eve and compares her to the icon of Mary standing next to Eve on the house altar).


ADAM

O God, how beautiful she is, how I love her face,

It is so gentle and soft, of mild dark light,

Her eyes twinkle like stars, like a blossom in the sky,

How her mouth smiles full of motherly kindness,

How soft is her cheek, I gladly give her a kiss,

To kiss her skin is a sweet delight,

How fine are her brows, her dark eyebrows,

Beneath them, like flashes of light, her eyes look,

And that black hair, as black as ebony,

As black as a raven's wing. O God, how proud I am

That such a woman loves me, is glad to be near me,

Blessed by God is our marriage, Blessed by God is our marriage.

And when I look at the picture of Mary next door

And I look at Eve and Mary both,

Mary seems to me the beauty of ideas,

In Eve then I can see Mary's beauty,

Like twin sisters they are, like archetype and like image,

Mary heavenly sweet and Eve earthly mild,

Mary perfect in godlike beauty,

But Eve also so beautiful that I groan with love!

Mary with the Son is like an image of God,

Where in Mary I see God-mother mild

And in the Son myself, myself in the Son of God,

I am enthroned in God's arms like Jesus Christ.

And when I look at Eve and Thomas on her lap,

Eve seems to me a great goddess

And Thomas I see as her son-lover.

This is a great comfort to all the afflicted,

Who once missed a mother's love as a child,

That God and God's Son are like child and mother!

So Eve is an image, she is an image of God,

She is an icon, she is, in spite of all mockery of sin,

An image of God, whether sinner or Christian,

The woman is an image of the great Godhead,

God made the dear woman in God's image,

As Eve is called Life, the Godhead is Life,

The Godhead is called Yahweh-Eve,

God is God-mother to all the living.

In Eve I behold the Godhead without mockery,

For Eve is as beautiful and loving as God!


(Lili joins Adam)


LILI

Here you stand in the night smoking a cigarette?

Did your Eve go to bed alone?

ADAM

She's still playing with her son, it's pleasant for him.

LILI

Mary appeared recently! Yes, in Jerusalem

Our Lady appeared on a mountain,

The Mount of Olives was the mountain. She wants to serve peace,

Spoke in Jerusalem, What is your denomination

And your faith, convert to the Son!

Though there are different religions in the world

And in Christendom there are different denominations,

In each religion God reigns as king,

But I quarrel with you, you blaspheme with derision.

Whatever your religion is and whatever your faith,

Do not let your peace with God the Creator be robbed.

There is only one way to the one true God,

If I tell you today, do not blaspheme,

There's only one way to God the Heavenly Father,

That way is Jesus! Here in the earthly theatre

You fight in war. Whether Jew, Christian, Muslim,

Convert to the Lord and turn to him,

For Jesus is the way. You believers on earth,

Only Jesus gives the world the peace it longs for.

So now turn in prayer to God's Son,

He leads you all to the Father's white throne.

ADAM

What do Jews say now, what do Muslims say,

What say Christians now? Do the pious hear the sublime

Proclamation in the Spirit to the pious of this world?

Whether Our Lady's proclamation pleases?

LILI

The Jews cry aloud, Mary, daughter of Sion,

In the wreath of Pleiades, in the wreath of Orion,

Isaiah's virgin you, virgin Israel,

The Messiah you bore, the Son Immanuel!

And the Muslims also to the Mother of the Messiah

Shout joyfully aloud, Praise Jesus, Son of Mary,

Messiah's mother praises, Messiah's mother praises,

Who received God's word from God's spirit alone!

The Protestants too, and also the Orthodox,

They sing this song, The donkeys and the oxen,

They know their Lord! We believe in the Lord

And his mother too, the hope, the morning star!

ADAM

On the event in the earthly theatre

Did the Pope comment as a wise father?

LILI

As Jew, Christian, Muslim stepped to the Pope,

They spoke, Holiness, how often you have given comfort!

But now in the world the faithful hate each other

And make war upon war, God has forsaken us!

Then said the Pope, Are you a Jew, a Muslim, a Christian,

God is Abba to us, yes, but God is also Mother!

And God says, Can a woman forget the fruit of her womb?

But God does not forget you! God loves you immensely!



SCENE 6


(Eve in a dressing gown enters the kitchen from the bedroom, her hair still dishevelled. Adam is sitting at the table drinking coffee. The newspaper is still unread in front of him).


EVE

Oh Adam, dear man, do you believe in prophecy

Of a woman's dreams? I have heard teachers

Of dreams said this, that morning dreams in particular

Are very often prophetic and not just vain dreams.

ADAM

In any case, O woman, you Venus of the foam,

Why don't you tell your husband your morning dream?

EVE

I saw the universe infinitely and dark,

Permeated as it was by light, by glittering sparkle,

By a cosmic harmonic law,

That I saw in the dream something like a spider's web.

ADAM

Was that a fearful dream, woman? You are afraid of spiders.

Was there a spider inside the spider's web?

EVE

There was a spider sitting in the spider's web huge

And my panic was abysmally bottomless!

ADAM

Did you wake up from that? And had to sweat fear‘s sweat?

EVE

I saw a flash, a light of a thousand flashes,

Then I heard a noise like a loud thunderclap,

Like an explosion, like a loud bang,

Then the spider's web is suddenly torn to pieces!

What does this dream tell me? That's what I'd like to know.

ADAM

The harmony of the cosmos in the divine command,

Love's universal law is threatened of death,

Of war and ruin and eternal destruction.

Alas, dear lady, the dream is not only poetry.

Love's world command, Venus' golden net,

The cosmos' harmony, love's universal law

Is threatened by death, which comes from father war,

The explosion of war! Give God that Venus may triumph!

EVE

You read the newspaper, man? It only serves time!

But a thousand years is one day of eternity.

ADAM

(After a time of silent reading)

Alas, war has broken out! The proud Russians

From the East approach Berlin and its Prussians,

They are already in Prague, in imperial Prague,

They stand before Warsaw's gate, a great day of terror,

Hungary also invaded, and Serbs and Croats,

The Russian army with many atrocities.

The European union trembles

And militarily rises to resist.

The Russians still want to go to France and Spain,

But the emperor raises his army in Germany!

EVE

O war, you god of abominations! Europe's scourge, Russia!

Mary, hear us, we kneel at your feet!

ADAM

But not enough, O woman, the war of the savage Russians,

The proud resistance of Europe and the Prussians:

The great China also invaded Japan,

Korea was also a target,

Vietnam has already surrendered.

The Chinese have subjugated the whole of Asia,

Only China remains sovereign. The Church calls to God,

The Philippines cry to the Mother without blemish,

The mantras don't help, nor do the temple dances

Of the Bayadians any more, only the rosaries

Of Mary still save, alone the string of pearls,

Prayer cries up to God, to the One God-Nature!

EVE

Have mercy, great God, on the whole world hereafter!

Mary soon give the world peace among nations!



SCENE 7


(Eve and Adam in the living room with a large pot of green Ginko tea.)


EVE

The president of the nations, he proclaimed the change,

Peace now reigns throughout the Earth‘s House.

War was praised before, the atomic bombs,

No hiding in deep catacombs can save.

The President of the Nations now wants to banish war,

He proclaims change, peace is the victory.

He already gives the poor the assurance of health,

The debts he defers, the patron of great hours.

All the world rejoices: O President of the Nations!

The whole world pretends to call him God,

But it seems to me that this man is also a god of this world,

The laurel wreath for peace is his,

The Peace Committee gave him the laurel wreath:

O president of the nations, past the dance of arms,

Gone is the contest of atomic bombs,

From which no hiding place in catacombs can help us.

Christianity is now reconciled with Islam,

Muslims will be one with Jews.

The president of the nations, a miracle man here and now,

Jerusalem ans Israel to the east gives peace.

Araby, full of happiness, becomes free of all war,

Reason now claims peace's gentle victory.

Terror has already subsided, he banishes the terrorists,

Christianity frees itself from fundamentalists,

The world sings in hope, praises the bringer of change,

Masonic lodges already praise his spirit,

The whole world is enraptured by the great bringer of peace,

Every statesman is the president's disciple.

He encourages the youth, I too was young and wild,

I too have raged wildly in the earthly realm,

Pious tyranny did not lie to me long,

I too have tried the quick happiness of drugs.

I know youth's lust and fleeting love,

I love the lust of youth, the urges are sacred to me,

Sexual happiness is a human right after all,

Free love will bring the human race

The joys, and the earth becomes full of love!

Princesses of lust promise happiness of the urges,

I, the president of nations, consciously serve

All the princesses of unbridled lust!

ADAM

Yes, fools, rejoice! But only the Son of Mary

Brings peace to the world, the divine Messiah!

Masonic lodges serve the president of the people,

Only those will despise him who recognise his plan:

He sets Moloch free to murder the children!

So you see, Satan is master of his order!

The president of the nations, the spider in the web,

Brutal child murder he makes world law!

The people of Africa he leaves to starve in misery

And children loiter miserably on their heaps of rubbish,

Unless Africa converts from this madness,

The child's life is happiness according to God's plan!

Black Africa will not get its bread,

If Africa continues to be a land full of the pious,

Where children are a gift from God the Creator,

Where God's gift and love's happiness is the child!

He preaches infanticide and makes it law,

Dragonflies catch in his spider's web.

Murder of children's souls by the millions will

Cry out to the Lord! The Good Shepherd will

Pour out his wrath! Faust makes the devil's pact,

Satan wants a holocaust of children!

But all children are the future happiness of mankind!

How divinely loving is a child's gaze!

EVE

My dear husband, how loud is your voice

In your hot anger, in your great fury!

ADAM

O Maximilian, my most beloved child,

O woe, if thou knewest how wicked are sinners,

How wicked are the wicked in their father's order,

Who follow Father Satan's plan, murdering children!

A human embryo already has soul and spirit,

You, dear embryo, already know of love,

You already know who loves you, whether the placental lining

Feeds you with love already, a merciful mother,

Whether your mother is looking forward to your appearance,

Whether she, deceived by Satan, hates you already today,

Whether fathers of lies from father Satan's order

Want to murder thee in thy womb at thy conception!

The sanctity of life, the sanctity of the child

To protect is the Lord's triumph in eternity!

What is this phrase about the great peace of nations?

When little children in their mothers' wombs are murdered,

Are murdered because the President is a fist,

Has made a pact with Satan for the holocaust of children!



SCENE 8


(George and Maximilian and Simeon are playing in the garden. Adam and Eve sit reading on a garden bench in the rose garden).


GEORGE


Come, Maximilian, come here and be my slave!

So say, I am doomed to death and greet thee: Hail,

My Caesar and my God! Then throw thyself before me!

MAXIMILIAN

No, I don't feel like it, my oldere brother.

GEORGE

But I command thee! And if thou wilt not follow me,

Then you will be struck by lightning from the dark clouds!

Then my rage and my fury will strike you like lightning,

Verily, I tell thee, then thou art in real trouble!

MAXIMILIAN

Then I'd rather run away and choose other ways.

GEORGE

Come here at once, or you'll get a beating!

Say, Ave Caesar, thou my God, the slave salute,

I'll kick you in the face with my foot,

I'll strike thy testicles with my fist full of force

And throw thee in the dust and tread thee on the ground!

MAXIMILIAN

I'm afraid, go away! I'll tell it Adam!

GEORGE

If you will say that, you'll never be a man.

You don't have to wise up, fool, like old wise men,

I'll beat the crap out of you anyhow!

I'll pull your hair out of your blonde mop of hair

And then beat your head with my head!

MAXIMILIAN

O father Adam mine! George wants to hit me!

My dad, help me, by Our Lady!

ADAM

Hush, George! Stop your wild rage now!

Do you want the earth to scream with your brother's blood?

GEORGE

God Caesar am I, but he is my slave,

I'll beat him to death, I'll slaughter him like sheep!

ADAM

In Jesus' name! Son, stop this evil!

The name of Jesus will deliver you from evil!

GEORGE

What have I done? O father Adam mine,

Can you still forgive your son George?

I am also your son and count myself among your own.

Oh, I must weep, I must weep hot tears!

ADAM

I love you very much, my son! But not the evil spirit,

That sometimes, full of wrath, tears in thy limbs.

Thee, dear George mine, one of my sons,

I call thee Apollo, ancient Greek beautiful.

EVE

Why, my dear husband, is our child brutal?

Why does he choose thiss so freely?

ADAM

Demons walk on this earth of ours,

Like wolves full of greed, they tear at the flock.

How helpless is the lamb before the wild wolf!

The whole earth is under Satan's heavy yoke!

The president of the nations, subjugating the peoples,

Wants little children, boiling in their mothers' blood,

Devour them like Moloch, the abominable idol.

The philosophers, too, are wild like wolves.

EVE

The philosophers, like that? What do philosophers teach

In this our time? I ask like the maids.

ADAM

They teach a God who is good and evil,

Not the God of love, whom the true Christian believes.

The God who is good and evil, He creates by destruction,

Creates the world by murder, that is bad poetry.

They say that man before was an ape,

Who ate his ancestors, eating them with skin and hair,

And because they ate the flesh with his proteins,

They began to think. So then they were given

The power to think by their patricide.

For the philosopher's wit teaches this word,

The strong survive! The strong is the evil,

The strong survives through the greatness of his wickedness.

Therefore strength alone is valid, power alone is valid.

Power is the law in this thinker's night.

It is not the way of the lamb, as with the quiet of the land,

Man wants nothing but power with his brutal will.

Only the man of unlimited power triumphs.

Not love is the law, no, wild passion.

The beast's savage greed, its jaws open,

Defeats the lamb's kind, now the dragon's power prevails.

Man frees himself from the divine command,

The God of love has failed! God is dead!

Now the New God applies, the God of power and strength,

Destruction is his goal and murder is his work.

Thus the god of power creates the strong superman,

The wild superwoman, who then wildly mate

And then in lust beget the superhuman race!

The lamb kind corrupts, the subhuman class.

EVE

Who is the sub-human, who is inferior?

ADAM

Jehovah's Jew is it and Christ's Christian!



SCENE 9


(George comes out of the school. Adam stands at the gate of the house and goes to meet his son with open arms. He takes him in his arms.)


GEORGE

O father Adam mine, we must at school

Wear a sign now, the mark of Beelzebul,

So I think it is the sign Six Six Six!

ADAM

They all laugh loudly and shout, Sex Sex Sex!

GEORGE

What does this sign mean, what does it mean?

ADAM

I used to hear a lot of pious people say,

Six hundred and sixty and six was Nero's number.

The Emperor Nero was an emperor of Rome once

And thought himself to be God, and also had himself worshipped.

So it was in the garden of Eden,

When Satan said to the woman, Thou thyself shalt be deity,

God is not absolute and eternal, One,

Rather, Man is God, man in the place of God!

This is called original sin and the epitome of mockery.

But today much more than once in paradise

The world of sinners says exactly this,

The sinners of our world multiply the guilt

And play Creator themselve. But Satan will lose!

Man idolises himself and thinks himself God,

Wants to be a potter himself and pot in the fire the clay,

Wants to be creator himself and create living beings.

That is the number of the beast, so say exegeses.

GEORGE

But if I don't wear the number on my skin,

I can't go to school. I saw this

On a child who was expelled from school,

Because he believed in God, the Lord of paradise,

In God, the creator God, the creative spirit.

Those who praise God as Creator are now despised!

ADAM

Contempt, scorn and derision, these are the weapons of sinners,

The blasphemers, the sons of the ape.

But we love God, the dear Father mild,

Who created us in the image of God.

GEORGE

And now the six-six-six, what does that mean to me?

ADAM

I will now dare to interpret it in this way,

Six will come, six will suffer,

Six will be punished by the wrath of the Lamb.

GEORGE

Saint Michael's sword shall shorten Satan's power!

It shall swiftly plunge Satan's host into hell!

ADAM

The archangel Michael protect thee, my son!

Archangel Michael, be George's patron saint!


(Eve steps out of the house)


EVE

Whoever does not bear the number of the beast, whoever is not baptised

On this beast's number, he can't buy anything now!

ADAM

Now bake me some bread and give me some meat!

EVE

I have nothing left. O help us, Virgin chaste!

ADAM

I prayed to God the Father for the food,

God spoke into my heart, the Eternal, All-Wise,

The flour jar will be filled every day,

You ask but for bread, and your God alone

Will give you food, bread and flesh for nourishment.

Remember how in the Book of Revelation

Elijah spoke with God, and how the Lord's commandment

To him, the prophet, and to the Sunemitess, bread

Was given every day and filled her flour jar

And satisfied the hunger of the Shemite and her son.

See how Elijah once prayed to God chastely

And ravens brought him bread and meat every day.

So in the evening and every new morning

God himself will miraculously provide for you and me.

Be without worry, woman, in this time of need,

Only ask the Father for bread every day.

Now go to the kitchen, the bread is advised to you

And in the frying pan you shall roast the meat for me too.

Then make a delicious meal for yourself, as you please,

And our sons also, despised of the world,

Beloved of the good Lord are the hungry, the afflicted.

You prepare a meal for those beloved of the Lord!

EVE

And let us eat the meal, then bless your prayer

The food that is on our table.

ADAM

Yes, may the blessing of the Lord, the great God, always be

Blessing on our bread and all our food!

EVE

My dear Jesus! Be a guest at our meal

And bless us the meal you have given!

ADAM

And after the meal of thanksgiving we will not be ashamed:

O dear God and Lord, we wish to partake

One day in paradise in Christ's dining hall

As God's children at the marriage supper of the Lamb!



SCENE 10


(Adam plays with Thomas in the garden. Lili and Eve whisper in the garden gate.)


LILI

Where were you tonight? You weren't at home.

EVE

I was with the comedian, I was with the clown in the hermitage.

He had a great sense of humour, was cheerful and kind,

So I landed in an angel's bed,

Where we plied our lovemaking in adultery.

LILI

But you mustn't tell your husband!

THOMAS

O dear Adam mine, we'll play star war!

The star warrior will last the great victory!

ADAM

My Thomas, do you know that I am Emperor of China?

How laughs the morning star, Stella Matutina,

How rose the sun when I commanded it,

How obediently the Virgin Dawn followed me,

How beautiful and young she was, how she let her eyelashes

Of reddish-blond hair on her lids flutter!

THOMAS

Are you no longer emperor? Where is thy imperial throne?

ADAM

The peasants have chased me from the throne, my son,

With cudgel and with spear the peasants drove me out,

I must mourn as a son of heaven in exile.

THOMAS

I will help thee, yes, my warriors alike

Conquer back your great empire!

ADAM

The border is guarded. There is peasant after peasant

And guards the empire on China's great wall.

THOMAS

Then we creep silently and stealthily, quietly and gently

Under cover of the mist through the dark midnight.

ADAM

Already my army rises from its catacombs!

THOMAS

And I'll liberate your empire with atomic bombs!

ADAM

Only sound soldiers, son, from their catacombs!

I beg you, do not speak of atomic bombs!


(Quintus comes running into the garden in a flurry of excitement).


QUINTUS

O mom, mom! In this terrible war

There's no victory, there's no victory on either side.

Now Russia is at war with China in the East,

That will cost the lives of many a soul.

The very worst that has happened now,

No good man believes it, no Christian believes it,

In North Korea the atomic bomb fell!

EVE

The nuclear bomb fell in North Korea?

ADAM

In Nagasaki, once in Japan, it also fell,

The people died from its breath of death.

In a small church, only a few Jesuits

Were just saying the rosary. Give us, Queen, peace!

While the bomb dances the great dance of death,

The Jesuits only plead with the rosary,

And Nagasaki was destroyed and reduced to rubble,

Year after year people died, worse and worse,

But the little church was spared, the little church was beautiful,

The little church remained whole and intact.

EVE

Say by the power of death and its terrors clarity,

Is what you just told the flawless truth?

ADAM

When the nuclear power station in Russia exploded,

The death cloud's poison spreads through the land

And everything becomes ill and many people from the nation

Die from the poison of the dark cloud of death,

A cave monastery survived, today still stands

The cave monastery, where they prayed prayers

And sang praises to Mary, the monks did not fall ill

And thanked Our Lady alone for the miracle.

EVE

So even now only Our Lady saves us?

We sinners know that we are sinners, exactly,

Only Our Lady is without any sin!

ADAM

Give us your blessing, O Mother with child!



SCENE 11


(Three days of darkness. Eve and Adam whispering in the dark.)


EVE

The great darkness has lasted three days,

Whether light will appear again is unfortunately uncertain.

Eerie it is here, I hear a rumour

In dark gloom, from eyes a twinkle,

The beasts now reign, they reign in our house

And in the bedchamber the fat grey mouse

And under the roof the old fat rat rules,

The rat triumphant who is horny like her husband,

High up on the roof sits the old owl,

In deep darkness ts grey eye is flashing,

From the forest I hear the owl too, the messenger,

That heralds the ghosts of the departed dead,

But in front of the house the old oak groans loudly,

In its top the black crow caws loud,

The raven, too, struts and flaps his black wings

And through the ivy the hedgehog slips at midnight.

ADAM

There is no harm in all this. By Roma's obelisk!

I see, the eye flashes, it gazes the basilisk,

Its gaze petrifies like the gaze of the Medusa,

As the basilisk looks, so looks not my muse,

She looks with dove's eye through her chaste veil,

But I see in my mind the basilisk eggs,

A basilisk hatches from the basilisk's egg,

A wyvern, too, through the deep darkness leaps,

The fire dragon has begun to hiss,

I see in the dark night here also a nest of snakes,

The anaconda and the boa choke hard,

The scorpion's tail stings venom into bone marrow,

Arrow-snakes point themselves steeply with lightning speed,

The garter snake too I see you entwine,

Field devils lurk there that I have seen,

The goat-demons there by the idol Priap,

The goat-demons marry without doubt

With night ghosts, with Lady Lilith, the she-devil,

The Lilith-devil I have seen by night,

Mistress of Lucifer, bride of the old Satan,

Temptress of the world to murder the children,

The women today are of Lilith's devilish order,

The Lilith-devil always roars, Sex sex sex,

The New Adam she calls her old man,

Seducing women with lustful promises,

To make mischief and break the marriage covenant.

Lord Jesus, God, eternal I Am,

Drive out of this world the Lilith-devil,

Cast out the Lilith-devil in God's name,

O Jesus Christ, O Lord Christ Jesus, Amen!


(Maximilian happily steps out of his bedroom)


MAXIMILIAN

O dearest dad mine, thou strong tree of life,

I had such a beautiful dream this night,

I was alone in the loveliest arbour,

As from the spring green the dove looked at me,

So gentle was her eye, so loving her gaze,

So full of peace and pity, so full of happiness

My heart opened and I heard, far from all mockery,

The human voice of God's dove of peace:

I proclaim peace to you, I, the dove of Elohim!

I saw the angels there from the valley of Mahanajim,

In their hands they held golden-white rosaries

And dancing in the spring the most beautiful wedding dances!

EVE

O look, a light appears, a young dawn,

The new day appears, the darkness is dead,

Aurora returns, the goddess dawn,

Hyperion appears and Pan blows his flute,

Hyperion appears from the old tribe of gods,

The sun comes, the light appears as a bridegroom,

O bliss, what pleasure to taste this sweet light,

The bridegroom comes, the light comes from the east!

ADAM

O Jesus, light of the world, shine your light upon us,

Let your face shine upon us, O Lord!


(Lili enters)


LILI

O my darling and O you too, my dear,

Sing hallelujah to God, war is over!

The Emperor of China has declared for China's highest glory

Christianity as his religion!

Russia's new Tsar also now consecrates Russia to Mary

And worships Christ as Hagia Sophia!

Europe's League of Nations, the Holy Union,

Adopts as its patrons Mary and her Son,

Europe's flag bears the image of the Immaculate,

The supreme celestial all-beauty, the perfect!

ADAM

Never more the war, never more the war!

The dove of Elohim, it brought us victory!

O dove of Elohim, bless us hereafter!

Now comes the Prince of Peace for universal peace!



SCENE 12


(Maximilian and Simeon are playing in the garden. In the sky the cross appears for all the world to see. Then the Virgin Mary appears on a cloud with the divine Child Jesus. The divine Child Jesus wears an imperial crown and a white imperial cloak, whiter than snow. In one hand the Infant Jesus holds the globe with a cross and in the other hand his sceptre).


SIMEON

I am very afraid, I tremble with fear!

Sing, Maximilian, what you sang to the Father!

MAXIMILIAN

By the dear Jesus! God makes the dear ones sprout

And makes the wicked flow in the hot lava!

JESUS

Beloved little children! I bless you in God,

God the Father of Heaven! I come without mockery

Full of mercy as your dear Saviour,

I was a child in Bethlehem's manger then.

And still am a child today, my Father is my God,

And king I am too, yes, emperor without mockery,

In all simplicity, I am the prince of love.

You dear little children in this world

Shall be like children too, and your father is

The dear God-father, who never forgets you.

So do not listen to the world and its false whispers,

Do not listen to the deceit, people are so lustful,

You shall only be simple, just be your heart,

And send your love heavenward to the Father

And love also God's Son, it is I, Jesus Christ,

Today I come to you. Look at my mother's breasts!

I give you my grace, my mercy and my favour,

I know your need, I know your art.

Pray, then, that I may rejoice in your praying,

And keep faith with me and also with Our Lady.

I help you, I am there as your saviour,

Only say yes to the Lord and his Mother!

Often you are very afraid, many charms tempt you,

Always look to me and look to my cross

And also carry your cross and call to me even more,

For when you call to me, I will say: I am here!

I am the Saviour after all. Little children on earth,

You shall be only children, only children of God,

That's the whole way to be the Father's child,

That's the whole of it, so you're mine forever!

MAXIMILIAN

O sweet Jesus, I see in your gaze

Paradise's happiness in the far distance!

Already my soul floats out of my dungeon body,

As through the whirlwind I drift into darkness.

What I have already found in the beyond as a pure spirit,

Is, a thousand years lasts a moment of hours.

I see a face, I see in the face

My whole life, see where I have not succeeded

The pious virtue's way, where children I tormented,

Where I have joined in falsehood, in theft.

And Jesus, there you are, invisible person,

But tangibly thou art there, soft the sound of thy voice,

You tell me: Child, there you did not do the good.

Full of remorse I feel like weeping.

There a host of spirits wants to see me punished,

The other host of spirits, full of the power of mercy,

Tells me that nothing pleases you, Jesus, so much

Than full of regret and sorrow my repentance,

That is enough for you, and nothing more of punishment!

There I float in the night, the universe's sea,

I hang all alone in bottomless nothingness,

Then I see a point full of beautiful light,

I'm drawn to the point, as my soul travels

Now closer to that point, spirit to spirit join

My soul, all spiritual their bodies,

But beautiful, much more beautiful even than the most beautiful women.

We only speak wisdom, mankind's treasure of knowledge

Is exchanged in thought with a mere sentence.

The light comes nearer and I enter the glow of light

With my soul, I dive into the light.

Yes, now I am in God! I am totally loved!

Within God there is nothing but pure love!

Such great love never existed on earth

And ever greater there become the spirit‘s love!

And everything is so beautiful, no human mouth can tell!

Yes, everything is all white and everything is all colourful!

Yes, everything is quite still and everything is full of sounds

And I am also a sound in this beautiful

Music of heaven Oh, my talking is a mockery!

Love alone is it! LOVE is my God!