And he cried, "My brothers and my sisters, let us pray."And all the men and women answered, "Let us pray."He cried, "For this fair banquet-house we thank thee, Lord."And all the men and women said "We thank thee, Lord.""Thine is this house, dear Lord."
"Thine is this house."
"For us hast thou made it."
"For us."
"Oh, fill our jars with wine, dear Lord.""Our jars with wine."
"Give peace and plenty in our time, dear Lord.""Peace and plenty in our time"--I said to God, "Whom is it they are talking to?" God said, "Do I know whom they speak of?" And I saw they were looking up at the roof; but out in the sunshine, God lay.
"--dear Lord!"
"Dear Lord."
"Our children's children, Lord, shall rise and call thee blessed.""Our children's children, Lord."--I said to God, "The grapes are crying!"God said, "Still! I hear them"--"shall call thee blessed.""Shall call thee blessed."
"Pour forth more wine upon us, Lord."
"More wine."
"More wine."
"More wine!"
"Wine!!"
"Wine!!"
"Wine!!!"
"Dear Lord!"
Then men and women sat down and the feast went on.And mothers poured out wine and fed their little children with it, and men held up the cup to women's lips and cried, "Beloved! drink," and women filled their lovers'
flagons and held them up; and yet the feast went on.
And after a while I looked, and I saw the curtain that hung behind the house moving.
I said to God, "Is it a wind?"
God said, "A wind."
And it seemed to me, that against the curtain I saw pressed the forms of men and women.And after a while the feasters saw it move, and they whispered, one to another.Then some rose and gathered the most worn-out cups, and into them they put what was left at the bottom of other vessels.
Mothers whispered to their children, "Do not drink all, save a little drop when you have drunk." And when they had collected all the dregs they slipped the cups out under the bottom of the curtain without lifting it.
After a while the curtain left off moving.
I said to God, "How is it so quiet?"
He said, "They have gone away to drink it."I said, "They drink it--their own!"
God said, "It comes from this side of the curtain, and they are very thirsty."Then the feast went on, and after a while I saw a small, white hand slipped in below the curtain's edge along the floor; and it motioned towards the wine jars.
And I said to God, "Why is that hand so bloodless?"And God said, "It is a wine-pressed hand."And men saw it and started to their feet; and women cried, and ran to the great wine jars, and threw their arms around them, and cried, "Ours, our own, our beloved!" and twined their long hair about them.
I said to God, "Why are they frightened of that one small hand?"God answered, "Because it is so white."
And men ran in a great company towards the curtain, and struggled there.Iheard them strike upon the floor.And when they moved away the curtain hung smooth and still; and there was a small stain upon the floor.
I said to God, "Why do they not wash it out?"God said, "They cannot."
And they took small stones and put them down along the edge of the curtain to keep it down.Then the men and women sat down again at the tables.
And I said to God, "Will those stones keep it down?"God said, "What think you?"
I said, "If the wind blew?"
God said, "If the wind blew?"
And the feast went on.
And suddenly I cried to God, "If one should rise among them, even of themselves, and start up from the table and should cast away his cup, and cry, 'My brothers and my sisters, stay! what is it that we drink?'--and with his sword should cut in two the curtain, and holding wide the fragments, cry, 'Brothers, sisters, see! it is not wine, not wine! not wine! My brothers, oh, my sisters!' and he should overturn the--"God said, "Be still!--, see there."
I looked: before the banquet-house, among the grass, I saw a row of mounds, flowers covered them, and gilded marble stood at their heads.Iasked God what they were.
He answered, "They are the graves of those who rose up at the feast and cried."And I asked God how they came there.
He said, "The men of the banquet-house rose and cast them down backwards."I said, "Who buried them?"
God said, "The men who cast them down."
I said, "How came it that they threw them down, and then set marble over them?"God said, "Because the bones cried out, they covered them."And among the grass and weeds I saw an unburied body lying; and I asked God why it was.
God said, "Because it was thrown down only yesterday.In a little while, when the flesh shall have fallen from its bones, they will bury it also, and plant flowers over it."And still the feast went on.
Men and women sat at the tables quaffing great bowls.Some rose, and threw their arms about each other, and danced and sang.They pledged each other in the wine, and kissed each other's blood-red lips.
Higher and higher grew the revels.
Men, when they had drunk till they could no longer, threw what was left in their glasses up to the roof, and let it fall back in cascades.Women dyed their children's garments in the wine, and fed them on it till their tiny mouths were red.Sometimes, as the dancers whirled, they overturned a vessel, and their garments were bespattered.Children sat upon the floor with great bowls of wine, and swam rose-leaves on it, for boats.They put their hands in the wine and blew large red bubbles.
And higher and higher grew the revels, and wilder the dancing, and louder and louder the singing.But here and there among the revellers were those who did not revel.I saw that at the tables here and there were men who sat with their elbows on the board and hands shading their eyes; they looked into the wine-cup beneath them, and did not drink.And when one touched them lightly on the shoulder, bidding them to rise and dance and sing, they started, and then looked down, and sat there watching the wine in the cup, but they did not move.
