BY TORSTEN SCHWANKE
1
Go, seer, take a temple whore
And beget harlot children with the woman!
So I will punish Sion's insolent forehead
And make thee a living god's sight.
So I went and took Gomer as my wife
And called Jezreel the first son.
God said, In thy prophecy write:
I will make a mockery of the kingdom of Sion.
And Gomer's bare belly was distended
And her swelling shells sprang up
And out of her shame a daughter arose.
Then came to me the hot breath of the Spirit,
To inflame my heart, that he was able,
Who closed all mercy.
2
The sons of Israel like the sand of the sea
As numerous as Pleiades and Orion,
They reach out their right hand in brotherhood
To the faithful sons of my daughter Sion.
I see them thirsting like gazelle kids,
For they had been robbed of their life source.
But now they find the Prince of Peace
As the head of their body anointed by God.
This will be a day of rejoicing and joy,
The sun stands still in the valley of Ajalon,
The turtledoves will make love in their nests.
Then all brothers are called wonderful
God Sabaoth‘s heavenly warriors
And hearty mercy all the sisters.
3
No, your mother is not my wife,
Written here be the bill of divorcement!
On her breasts I see the stains,
Because she slept with her young Tammuz!
I undress her, she stands before me naked,
As once I severed the umbilical cord.
She made a pact with her idol
And did love the idol with her womb.
She said, I will follow my wild suitors,
They anoint me, they may drink with me,
I will unveil myself before them for nothing!
But I gave her the flashing gold ring,
With pictures I adorned the wedding hall
In which she then gathed herself to Baal!
4
I take my silk and my linen
From her and leave her naked and bare!
Then she may join her suitors
In her idolatrous womb!
I blacken all her brothels,
Sweat baths and veiled chambers.
Like drunkards shall the prizewinners clamour there,
And the cats shall crouch on the housetops and howl.
I will ravage the grapes, the figs,
In their garden I'll send worm and hedgehog,
The grasshopper shall eat the swelling head of lettuce!
For she has forgotten her bridegroom,
She has stained the pure mirror of virtue
And thinks that I am silent to her lust!
5
But I will entice her and tempt her
And seduce her, lead her into the wilderness!
There I will cover her long henna curls,
With date-palm blossoms I will adorn them,
There I will woo her as a bridegroom
And give her the vineyards again.
She shall inherit the whole valley of hope,
It shall become the valley of fulfilment.
She will follow me, yes, follow me willingly,
No longer err, whorish and cheap,
She consecrates to me all her treasures of youth!
She will no longer be like the whores of Egypt
With eyes winking where the lashes bobbed,
No, she becomes through me the epitome of virtue!
6
In that day she will call me husband
And no longer idolatrously Baal.
Living ones unite in the shade,
She no longer has in her womb the idolatrous pole.
The idolatrous names I take from her mouth,
She shall be flawless with the lipstick red.
I will inhabit her in her depths,
I, Sabaot, will rapture her to the summit.
I'll take you, loveliest of women,
In the dark valley of Achor trust me,
Where Sabaot looks through the gate of hope
And sees the gate of hope red and hot!
Foreskins I give to the bride as a prize,
Blood bridegroom am I, the Lord, to the bride!
7
God said to me, My seeing prophet,
Go to her and love this woman!
Love her as the wood of salvation stands,
Know her and trust her womb!
As you love Gomer, so I love Sion,
Yea, Sion with the sons of Israel.
So the Pleiad once loved Orion,
As the sea tide loves the sea rock.
I bought her for fifteen shekels
And poured wheat into her apron
And said, You will now stay with me every night!
I will humble the loud boasters,
But the little ones will come in short order
And my daughter Sion shall be whole.
8
The priests consecrate themselves to Satan,
Who pluck up lilies of Sharon,
Prophets are not virtuous like Natan
And priests no more lofty like Aaron.
From all the rooftops they will shout shame,
Because priests tread down little children,
And down the steps of the realm of the dead
Holy prophets shall enter into harlots.
Because thou hast knowledge and wisdom
Rejected and given up to fornication,
Therefore I reject thee, O people of priests!
They are ready for immorality
And yet they generate no new life,
All their cells are Astarte‘s gloom.
9
The sacrificial fig liquor, the beer of the gods
Rob my people of all sanity,
Each hornier than a young beast,
Each one puts the power in his hand,
The hand with which they question the oracle signs
To question, to read the future from the cards.
They play at courtship with hard oaks
And burn incense to marble images of harlots.
Sion's daughters I punish, the whores,
The priests themselves go in the footsteps of harlots.
And celebrate worship with the maidens of pleasure.
O daughter of Israel, you stupid cow,
You moo in vain, you find no rest,
For to drunken revelers thou givest thy udders.
10
With Jehovah they have broken the covenant
In their vile fornication,
Therefore only a bastard hath gone forth
And boundless greed was his first cry.
Beat the drums, beat the cymbals, sound
The ram's horns! Ephraim is young!
It is the hot desert wind in your nostrils
And hot embers in the day of chastisement!
The kings condemn him to black Sheol,
The lowest Gomorrah village,
In pitch and brimstone and in firebrands.
The daughter of Israel I strike with warts,
The daughter of Israel I strike with scabs,
The daughter of Israel I strike with pus!
11
Come, let us return to our Lord,
He smote the wounds, he will heal the wounds!
Out of Israel rises the morning star
And Jehovah will dwell in daughter Sion.
Let us strive for knowledge and for wisdom!
God comes as surely as the dawn!
Like dew he sprinkles our flower life
And takes like fire our death of grass.
What shall I do with thee, O Judah? Behold,
Like clouds of dew dispersed in the morning,
So will I see all thy desire vanish away.
I will not ask of thee a sacrifice of atonement,
To quench the fires of judgment.
Only, daughter of Jerusalem, I beg for your love!
12
In Adam the covenant was transgressed,
All the cities are full of evildoers,
The robbers are gathered in all the cities
And slaves of Mammon are the fathers.
Poets conspire with insolent robbers
And become the defenders of murder.
I see Ephraim devoted to the women
And Israel as a horde ready to murder.
The harvest is yet to come for you, Judah,
Angels will go forth as reapers of grain
And cast all weeds into the fire!
Then I myself will pass through the gate of the East
As bridegroom and knight of high love,
Then I will gather the small rest of the faithful.
13
Yes, Ephraim is a turtledove,
Very swift in the words of foolish vows,
Lame in understanding, his faith is vain,
He trusts in the princess of Egypt.
And when he flutters too to the sun's warmth
And the sun god becomes his favourite idol,
I'll catch the swift flocks of birds
And with my arm cast out the nets.
They run away from me to the dog's head,
But the underworld is still believed,
From me they lie boldly and brazenly!
They turn to the little good-for-nothing,
But when I come, in a moment
I'll break the worthless man's bow.
14
They all say that they know Jehovah
And that the good God is good to the land,
But I see them hastening, I see them running
After Mammon, their idol of gold.
They set up kings and princes
In the land, they desecrate my peace.
I hear the righteous thirsting in the wilderness,
I will offer them my prince of peace.
They sow the wind of war, they reap the tempest
Of terror, they shall perish by the sword,
Because they take up the sword in all places.
The worm will gnaw at their wheat,
The pious are devoured by the desert,
The multitude praise the golden calf.
15
I know wild asses in the loneliness,
But Ephraim makes wooing gifts,
Bellybutton beads for Egypt's maiden
And earrings for the daughter of Babylon.
How many high altars are built
In the land to make atonement for the people,
There is none that trusts in Sion's God,
Who appeared flaming in the thorn-bush.
They love sacrifices and eat manna,
But without prayers of thanksgiving and trust,
So all will die in the desert!
In Babel's ziggurat they praise Inanna,
The women burn incense to Ishtar,
The reveler I see wooing the harlot.
16
I speak of the folly of the prophet
And of the wise man's madness I speak also.
Do I listen drunkenly to slurred prayers
And do I give wisdom through the smoke of the lozenge?
Challenge and temptation shall
Show thee thy abysmal guilt.
Through your faith's suffering deepening
Grant thee once more the grace of the Most High.
I see nets everywhere entangle
The poor son of a whore, the prophet,
And the maw of the realm of the dead is full of tears.
Pits are dug in the cities,
To send the seer to the underworld
Through a harlot's red-painted mouth.
17
As grapes are found in the desert,
So I found Israel, the first fig.
But Sion had her breasts groped
And asked Baal to beget her a child.
And Ephraim is like a flock of birds
And flies away into Ishtar's womb.
And he sees his children destitute,
It is as if he were childless.
Give the mothers barren wombs
And let the breasts dry up without milk,
For all their wickedness is revealed!
I love them no more, I am merciless,
Angered at their lips' deceit
And their lust for every idol!
18
Sow your seed of righteousness
And sow in new ground, in the good field.
To seek the Lord, that is the time now,
So set out bravely on the pilgrim's way!
Then he will shower you with blessings,
He will lift up all those who fall short.
But thou hast gone forth to fury and wrath,
Trusting in the strength of your warriors.
Of wars you hear and of terrible pestilences,
Earthquakes will collapse your temples
And your towers will all be in ruins.
And in the red morning glow
The Prince of Sion shall step out of the room
And through the dust of war and terror he will rush!
19
When Israel in youthful strength and beauty
I looked upon, I loved the beloved,
Then I called Joseph, I called Jacob's sons
Through Moses from the dungeon of Egypt.
The more I called the virgin of Israel
And lured her to the tent of revelation,
To kiss there the sweetness of her lips,
The more she ran to the prince of this world.
I would bind her with the fetters of the Son of Man
And with Love's chains bind her to me,
I cried from the rocky seat above,
My heart was broken, mercy was kindled!
But where could the daughter of Sion be found?
Who was the God who overcame Sion?
20
Thus says the God of hosts, says Jehovah,
With God's help return to the rest of the soul,
Keep love, my beloved handmaid,
Then I will crown thee with a princely jewel!
I will let you dwell in the tent,
As I appear in the cloud of fire,
I bless with visions and voices
The seer and prophet of the people.
But because of a woman became a slave
My servant Israel in Amram's pastures,
Over Jacob two women quarreled.
Through the prophet I delivered him
From Mizraim, where he has consecrated himself
In my tent of covenant to the Lord the Redeemer!
21
Return, O Sion, with the same foot,
With which thou didst err, come that I may rejoice!
You consecrate to me the virtue of your repentance
And amiable tears of thy repentance!
Out of sheer magnanimity I will love you again
And will be there like the morning dew.
Thou blue flower be inscribed upon me,
You lily, be my dear bride!
I'll lead thee to the cypress hut
And my royal cedar chamber
And bed you under the veil on the couch.
I water thee with fruit of the juniper,
And then I recognise you, you call me Darling,
You, Virgin Israel, and I, Jehovah!