S. Agnon - A Book that Was Lost

The fish closed its eyes in grief, and at that moment they showed it the death that was awaiting it. Then it sang a dirge for itself. If we translate its words to our language, this is approximately what they said:

Not in mighty waters did I end my allotted days;

Nor in ancient rivers shall I wend my destined ways;

In a wicked man’s hand I perish indeed;

Though I offer much prayer, he will not heed.

After the fish vomited out the last remnant of its strength, Fishl laid it on the reading table and removed his prayer things from the bag. He picked up the fish and stuffed it back into the bag. The fish, whose strength was gone and who was already half dead, submitted to suffering in silence and offered no protest against Fishl, Fishl opened his tallit and tefillin bag again, to show his face to the fish before sending it away. He laughed to himself contentedly and said, “I shall recite some of your praises to your face. You are fit for me and worthy to be eaten by me. Karpl Shleyen and Fishl Fisher and, need it be said, Fishl Hecht, the half-brother of Fishl Fishman can all envy us.”

After giving praise to the fish, he said to the orphan, “How many feet do you have, all in all?” “Two.” “If so, pick up both of them at once and run swiftly to tell Hentshi Rekhil my wife what I told you, that is, ‘Reb Fishl, long may he live, desires a meal of fish. Hurry and cook the fish and make him tasty victuals such as he loves.’”

Bezalel Moshe gazed at him and asked permission to conceal the mizrah first. Fishl laughed and said, “Fool, what are you scared of? Not even a mouse would nibble at it, but if you wish, hide it then and hurry, for Reb Fishl craves the taste of this fish.”

Bezalel Moshe put away the mizrah and the tools of his trade, and took the fish, which was ensconced in Fishl’s tallit and tefillin bag, for Fishl had emptied the bag and stuffed in the fish.

The fish lay in the bag and its soul yearned to die, for it had come to loathe this world to which no creature comes but to die. Even if it has brought forth great things, its end is death. And how did the fish cogitate, since it was already dead? It was dead, let us say, but its torments were still alive.

Were it not for the fish’s ignominious end, it would be worth recounting all its deeds and celebrating each and every detail. Now that it has plunged to the deepest abyss, it is enough for me to recall some of its deeds and to include the deeds of its fathers and also what befell it before reaching Fishl Karp. And don’t be surprised that I do not call it by name. It had no name, since no fish is called by a given name, due to the great honor they accord to the Leviathan, their king. Moreover, until the time the Talmud was written, no species of fish even had a general name. This should be evident, for when the Bible speaks of fish, it never mentions the species.

4

Lords of the Water

His fathers and his fathers’ fathers were among those venerable fish whose lineage extended back to the fish who were with Jonah in the belly of the Great Fish, and since their souls clung to Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the Great Fish, they followed him until the Great Fish vomited him forth, as ordered by the Holy One, blessed be He. Hence there is no doubt that Jonah prayed inside the belly of the Great Fish, contrary to those commentators whose forced interpretation maintains that Jonah did not pray until after he went forth on dry land, since it is written, “And he prayed, et cetera, from the belly of the fish,” and not “ in the belly of the fish.”

How did the fish come to our rivers, which are far from the place where Jonah was? But where was Jonah’s prayer offered? Was it not in the place where the sea joins the river, as he said, “And Thou didst cast me into the deep, in the heart of the seas, and the river surrounded me.”

These fish left the sea and came to the river and tossed in the fresh water from river to river, sometimes willingly and sometimes unwillingly. There are no bounds to the rivers they crossed and no end to the waters they swam in, nor is there any measure to the roiling water they passed through at peril of their lives, nor is there a limit to the snares and nets that caught them. Finally they came to the least of our waters, the River Dniester, which traverses the lands of His Majesty the Kaiser, as did the members of the Kiknish family, who came from the seed of Jonah the Prophet, as their name indicates. For Kiknish comes from kikayon the Hebrew word for “gourd,” which is the gourd that the Lord appointed for Jonah to shade him from the sun. I do not know if there are still any members of the Kiknish family alive, but some of them are buried in the Lemberg cemetery.

Nonetheless, it is fitting that you know that what was once accepted as undeniable truth has now come to be challenged. And some people already say that these are legends and that the lineage of this fish is made up. Not that the fish is not the son of its ancestors, but that they are not the sons of their ancestors — meaning those ancestors from whom they claim descent, that is, the fish who were with Jonah in the belly of the Great Fish. And by now every schoolboy is scornful. Using ichthyological terminology, they claim that the descendants of all the fish that were with Jonah in the belly of the Great Fish have become extinct, and that not one of them remains. So that anyone who says that he comes from the belly of Jonah’s fish is an imposter. But I say, if we do not have ancestral honor here, we have honor itself. And if you wish to know what that is, I shall tell you in a manner comprehensible to human understanding, just as the early sages put human words in the mouths of beasts and animals and birds. True, they were great sages, and all their deeds were done for the sake of wisdom and morality, and to endow the simple with insight, on the strength of the verse “Who teaches us by the beasts of the earth.” But for me, who have not even come so far as the pupil of their pupils, things as they were are enough.

In its youth, when it was still a light greenish color, the fish had already made a name for itself among the lords of the waters. Fish both great and small were in awe of it. Before it reached them, they glided toward it and entered its mouth alive. Fish that float on their bellies and those fish that swim on their ribs, left-handed ones and right-handed ones — they all came on their own to be his food. Not to mention snouty fish and those with eyes in their heads. Our fish, whose heart was close to its cheeks, let no rings be put through its gills and opened its mouth to dine upon them. Indeed, never in our lives have we heard that a fish like this one was to be found in our rivers, but because of its power and might, the others exaggerated, saying that even the fish in the sea were its subjects.

Cruising mighty waters, dreaded by fin and scale,

Here minnows gulping and there large fish devouring,

When it holidayed, ah, then did its foes all quail.

When it sallied forth with legions noble, scouring

The enemy’s scales. Then did they savage and blast

The vanquished adversaries’ heads. One day it called

For banquet and gluttony, then declared a fast.

Sometimes it did fierce battle, other times it brawled.

Now it crammed its huge mouth with seaweed’s denizens,

Now it bloodied streams but swam not all the long day.

Now it tripped and capered with the Leviathan’s

Daughters, now like a groom, having with them its way.

Here passed it hours in banqueting and pleasure,

Dining with counselors, the shellfish sagacious,

Now crowning players and singers at leisure,

Discharging advisors when feeling pugnacious.

Every white-fleshed fish to its pointed teeth fell prey,