S. Agnon - Shira

Because of a solicitor from one of Jerusalem’s charitable institutions, Herbst couldn’t tell his tale, and Henrietta couldn’t hear it. I will therefore take the matter into my own hands and relate the plot of the tragedy Herbst hoped to compose, though I won’t break it down into acts and scenes. I’ll include the entire plot. I’ll tell the story. I’ll choose tender language suited to such a tale.

There was once a sweet and fetching girl. She was motherless, and her father was a high-ranking officer in the emperor’s army. Because he was busy fighting the emperor’s enemies and the like, he couldn’t keep an eye on his daughter. The wife of — , a childhood friend, took her under her wing, invited her to live in her home, and hired teachers and tutors to endow her with knowledge, wisdom, religion, music. In all these endeavors, she was successful. And her success was matched by charm, which increased from day to day.

The wife of — had a stepbrother, the son of a woman her father had married after her own mother’s death. His name was Yohanan, and he was a nobleman, who served in the emperor’s court. When this Yohanan came to visit his sister and saw the girl his sister was raising, he fell deeply in love with her. His sister didn’t interfere, for she loved her brother Yohanan and was eager to make him happy. Yohanan loved the girl, and she responded with love. They didn’t see each other as often as they wished, because he lived in the capital, far away. But fortune smiled on him, as she often does on those she favors. The emperor’s wife was impressed with the girl. She invited her to live in her home and join the other young girls who were members of her court.

When the girl left to serve the empress in the capital city, her mother-guardian sent along a slave she had bought, whose name was Basileios.

Basileios was a God-fearing man who served his mistress faithfully. He knew that God works wisely on behalf of His sons, on behalf of their souls, to be redeemed through the suffering of Christ. He was tied by bonds of gratitude to his mistress and her entire family, who had bought him to be a slave in their household but didn’t castrate him, allowing him to remain as he was, as God had created him. Yet that which is a blessing to all men can be a stumbling block to a man in bondage. He had cast an eye on his mistress. Being so close to her, seeing her beauty and charm every minute of every day, he was consumed with desire for her, and his love for her became more intense from day to day.

When the girl arrived at the court of the empress, she hoped to see her true love. And he expected to see her. How despondent they were, how baffled and sad, for, whenever they were about to meet, a sudden obstacle prevented them from seeing each other.

The obstacles were numerous and varied. As the obstacles multiplied, so did their love. They didn’t know or understand how it was and why it was that they weren’t seeing each other.

All the obstacles and accidents were contrived by Basileios. Basileios devised these schemes to keep the other servants from learning about the relationship between his young mistress and Yohanan the nobleman. Not because he considered himself a rival, for no slave could compete with noblemen and respected citizens. But Basileios knew full well that the emperor had noticed the girl and coveted her, that he was waiting for the day when the empress would be in labor, occupied with the pains of childbirth, oblivious to everything else around her. Then the emperor would have the girl brought to him. If the emperor were to learn of the relationship between her and the nobleman Yohanan, he would have Yohanan sent to the battlefield, never to return. The girl would not see her true love ever again. This was the source of the obstacles that littered the lovers’ path. No one other than Basileios, the girl’s faithful servant, knew any of this or guessed that anything was amiss.

But every strategy has its limits. Basileios took sick. He was stricken with leprosy, for which there is no cure, and quarantined. He couldn’t come into the city, nor was he allowed into the royal court. He wished to warn the girl, his mistress, that it would be very risky to meet with Yohanan the nobleman. The emperor would seek to avenge his lust, not merely through Yohanan the nobleman, but, should he discover that the girl had given her heart to someone else, even as he, the emperor, lusted after her, his powerful hand would strike out at her as well. So Basileios, the faithful servant, sat in solitude, thinking only of his mistress and how to save her from the misfortune in store for her should the emperor discover her connection with the nobleman Yohanan.

Basileios devised many schemes to enable him to sneak into the city and into the emperor’s court, so he could see either his mistress or the nobleman Yohanan and warn them that, should their love be discovered, the emperor would have them killed because of his own love for the girl.

One day, Basileios heard about a holy man who lived in the desert, in a home he had made for himself in a broom plant. He was a great and holy man, whose name was celebrated throughout the land. Long before he settled in the desert, making himself a nest in a hollow broom plant, he had served the emperor. He had been a leading general and one of the emperor’s favorites. But then he began to disdain the ways of the world and to reject temporal life, in order to secure a place for his soul in a world that is totally good — the afterworld. He traded this world and all its goods for the afterworld, for the infinite bliss it offered to those who fear God and choose to trade this fleeting existence for a timeless one. He left the emperor’s court, the city and all its diversions, and all those who loved him — friends and intimates — for the desert wastes. There, he sustained his body with wild grasses and swamp water, so he would be able to sustain his soul with eternal pleasure, for the sake of the Redeemer who saves the souls of those Christians who are true to Him.

Basileios devised many plans in an effort to contact this man of God, to tell him about the emperor’s designs on the girl, so that the man of God could rescue her and the nobleman Yohanan, who loved the girl but didn’t know what was in store for him because of his love. Basileios had many fine plans. But what use are such plans when a man isn’t free and is forbidden to leave his quarters? Basilieos, the faithful servant, was not like all the other lepers, who were permitted to come as far as the city limits to collect bread thrown to them by individuals with compassion for those stricken by God. This was not the case with Basilieos, the girl’s servant. For this gracious girl, wishing to be kind to her servant Basileios, had bought a house for him to live in and arranged for him to be taken care of and provided for. Those who were in charge of him assumed the girl wouldn’t want him to leave the house and guarded him so vigilantly that what was meant to serve his interests became a hindrance. Now, it happened, just by chance, that the Arians in the state became more and more powerful, and the Christians were afraid they would win the emperor’s support and take over. The bishops and other leading clerics decided to approach him (the man of God) and to urge him to have a word with the king. He (the holy man) had seen no other human being in twenty years. He had received no one in all this time. Whenever he heard footsteps approaching his shelter, he quickly hid himself away, so he wouldn’t be found. Now that the bishops had decided to turn to the holy man, they didn’t know how to approach him, for he had isolated himself from human society and allowed no one an audience. When Basileios found out about this from the servants who looked after him, he decided to undertake to convey the bishops’ request to the holy man. He was certain that, when he saw his affliction, the holy man would pity him and allow him to approach.