S. Agnon - Two Tales - Betrothed & Edo and Enam

The little burner stands between the door and the table; the water bubbles and rises, but when it reaches full boil there isn’t enough for all the girls, as the kettle is too small. Let us leave the tea, then, and turn to other concerns. There is the burner with the water gradually heating. Opposite, Tamara sits on the edge of the couch. Rachel is at the table, plaiting herself a kind of garland. A song comes into her mind —

Beside the brook the boy reclined,

And wove his flowery wreath.

Then again she wonders at herself for bothering with such plants, whose smell is like that of iodine on a wound.

Leah said, “Here am I standing about as if I had nothing to do and I promised to go and see Asnat!”

Rachel answered, “You are nothing but a parcel of promises, Leah,” and went on plaiting her garland.

“But since I promised her, what shall I do? How can I let her wait for nothing?”

“Oh, let Asnat wait until she’s tired of waiting. Where are you off to, Tamara?”

Tamara answered, “I am going to call Miss Mag-argot. That is, if Dr. Rechnitz has no objections.”

“On the contrary,” said Rechnitz.

Rachel laughed and said, “I knew that Leah and I would not be enough for you! Whom else shall we invite?”

But just as Tamara was about to leave, in came Asnat, and with her, her relative Raya. For Asnat, deciding not to wait any more, had gone for a walk with Raya Zablodovsky and while they were out they had passed by Rechnitz’s house, heard the sound of conversation and decided to come in.

Asnat had not really intended to visit Rechnitz but she was glad now that she had come. And the same was true of Raya, who was not paying a visit for the sake of Rechnitz but to please herself; it was her own personality that guided her movements and so she made herself at home everywhere. Thus it came about that five girls were all met in the lodgings of Rechnitz, each for a reason of her own and all well pleased to be there.

“Is anyone still missing?” asked Rachel.

“If Mira were here,” said Leah, “that would make a full session.”

“Yes, but there wouldn’t be a spare cup for her,” said Rachel.

“I don’t take tea,” Tamara put in.

“My dear child,” said Rachel, “yours is not the only mouth.”

Tamara lowered her head and took another sniff at the carnation on her blouse.

“I didn’t mean to mock you,” Rachel added.

Tamara said, “I know that, Miss Heilperin, and of course I’m not hurt.”

After tea, Asnat said, “How about going for a walk? All in favor, raise their hands.”

“Better their feet,” said Rachel, “so that we can get started.”

“Let me first make our host’s bed,” said Leah, “so that when he comes back he’ll find it ready for him. Where shall we go?”

“Where?” said Asnat. “By the sea, of course.”

“And when we pass Mira’s house,” added another of the girls, “we’ll call her out too. Who votes for that?”

So Rechnitz found himself again in the company of the six. Not long ago he had been glad that he had given them up, now he was pleased that they had returned. The envy of the gods works in devious ways, so that we ourselves cannot know what is for our good and what is not.

XXXI

The sea lay stretched on a bed as wide as the world, its nightshirt the moon-whitened waves. The shores had grown long, moonlight lay on the sands and the sea. A beneficent spirit brooded over Rechnitz and the six maidens, for on the way they had called for Mira, who hurried to make up the quorum of the Seven Planets. When such a night as this and such a spirit are in conjunction, their power is complete, their blessing great.

Rachel, Leah and Asnat walked to the right of Rechnitz; Raya, Mira and Tamara to his left. Sometimes they changed places, those on the left wheeling over to the right, or those on the right passing over to the left, but they always took care to leave Rechnitz in the middle. And Rechnitz among his maidens was carried beyond himself, as he had been on those fine nights a year ago, and two years, and three years ago. At that moment, he put Shoshanah entirely from his mind. But her memory formed a circle around his heart, like the golden lashes around her eyes as she slept.

Rachel Heilperin wore the appearance of being happy, while Leah Luria was happy indeed. “On a night like this…” she cried excitedly, and great untellable longings trembled in that lovely voice. Since she knew no way to sing the praises of the night, she stretched out her delicate arms and stared into the hollow of the universe. And night assigned that hollow its own starlit mightiness. “On a night like this…” she cried again, and again stopped short. But since she could not still the tumult within her, she called to the others, “Girls, girls, just look! Look!”

Sea and sky, heaven and earth, and all the space between were grown into a single living being; a luminous calm enveloped by azure, or an azure transparent as air. Up above, and under the surface of the sea, the moon raced like a frenzied girl. Even the sands were moonstruck and seemed to move perpetually. Like the sands, like all the surrounding air, the girls, and with them Rechnitz, were taken up into the dream. If they looked overhead, there was the moon running her race, and if they looked out to sea, there she was again hovering upon the face of the waters. Heaven and earth, land and sea, had become a single whole; and this was contained in yet another, greater whole that no eye could see.

Rachel took Leah’s hand, Leah the hand of Asnat and Asnat that of Raya, and Raya took Mira’s, and Mira Tamara’s and Tamara took Rachel’s; they encircled Rechnitz and danced around him, danced until Rachel broke from their ring and knelt down facing the sea with her eyes uplifted to the moon. Asnat stood still, stretched out her hands in the air and played inaudible notes on an unseen keyboard. “Listen, Tamara,” said Mira, “if I had a horse, I would go galloping from one end of the world to the other!”

“Good people all,” said Raya, “has anybody a horse in her pocket for Mira? Oh Mira, Mira, I’ve no horse in my pocket either, so what can I do for you, my dear? Could you possibly do without the horse and go on foot?”

“For your sake, Raya, I shall go on foot,” Mira answered, laughing and putting her arms around Tamara. Tamara laid her head on Mira’s breast and said, “You’re a good friend.” “Wait, little one, wait,” Raya called to Tamara, “my shoe’s full of sand.” She leaned against her, took off her shoe and shook it empty.

Suddenly Leah called, “Look, good people all, just look! What’s that out to sea? I swear there’s a light burning on the water!”

They looked out to sea and at the light, which came from a passing ship. Only those aboard knew whether it was sailing to or from the Land of Israel, but to Jacob Rechnitz and his companions it made no difference where the ship was headed. They stood in silence watching the light floating on the surface of the sea. The spread of waters girdled both the ship and the light. Now the light sank, now it rose, again it sank and floated. On such a ship Jacob would soon be sailing over endless distances, and they, perhaps, would stand on the shore as now and see the light far off, while Jacob would not see them or be aware of their presence, even as the passengers on this ship were unaware of being observed. So the girls stood silent, looking out and clasping each other by the waist. At last they turned their thoughts from the ship and grieved for themselves, as if they had suffered some loss.

Once thoughts have entered the mind, words come to the lips, and Leah spoke aloud what they were all thinking. “I’ve been wanting to ask you, Dr. Rechnitz,” she said, “when will you be leaving for America?”