Asire ha-tikvah (Prisoners of Hope)

Joseph Penso de la Vega

1668

From the Opening Monologue of the Play, Spoken by the King

The King enters in a drowsy state, neither entirely asleep nor entirely awake.

King:
What is this dream, which I have dreamt?
Who, indeed, is the one that I have seen,1
Saying: “Haven’t I fulfilled all my promises?”
Speak, O friend; I await your word.
“O youth, O ruddy one, so comely in appearance,”
He promises and vows, “You’ll sprout such glorious
Flourishing [hair] on your head, with brilliant sheen,
If you abandon God’s law forever.”
This one was still speaking, when I saw a man,2
Elderly, with fearful heart and trembling knees.
Crying out, in bitter voice: “I’ve been hoping for you,
With my loins wracked with pain and staggering.”
“How long, O fool, will you trust the world’s vanities,
Give pangs to song, sorrow to the lyre?
Prepare for the day of destruction, to receive your lot—
You and all your portion are like the lot of emptiness.”3
How, pray say, can you fool, you dolt, you idiot,
Think that you will remain a guest at the inn forever?
Look to the end of things, and you will see suffering,
On the day when slaughter will be prepared for you.
At once, you’ll be brought to the foe, like an ox to slaughter,
For all his promises are vanity and dreams.
If you rejoice now at the sound of the band, its songs and music,
Tomorrow they’ll all be nothing, pain and staggering.
Arise now, to the beautiful mountain, O you whose hands are pure,4
To collect the fruit of your Law, the progeny of Noah.
You will gather your reward, which will be extensive,
And dwell the shadow of God, who is mighty in strength.”
They went their way, and I remained,
In tears, upon my bed, moaning with pain.
I arose, with broken heart, and I was broken,
Bitterly crying until the daylight came.
What shall I do now? Whom shall I choose?
I could pursue and attain pleasures for the foe—
Come, O sons of lusciousness and desire,5
Let us drink our fill until morning, through tomorrow.
But then, on the day of well-being, the time of disaster,6
What will I respond to God, what will I say further?
For one that walks in wickedness will only add wickedness—
So how could I ask for mirth while I’m still in rebellion?

 

Translated by
Gabriel
Wasserman
.

Notes

[The evil inclination, which entices people to sin.—Trans.]

[The good inclination, which leads people to do good.—Trans.]

[Hebrew hevel, which is also the Hebrew name for Abel; the phrase could be translated alternatively as “the lot of Abel,” who was killed by Cain after a short life.—Trans.]

[The “beautiful mountain” here is the hill of the Lord which he that hath clean hands ascends (Psalms 24:3–4), although the poet calls it by the name har shefer, which is a place name, Mt. Shepher, in Numbers 33:23.—Trans.]

[A pun on Genesis 36:26.—Trans.]

[I.e., judgment day, which will bring well-being to the righteous and disaster to the wicked.—Trans.]

Credits

Joseph Penso de la Vega, “From the Opening Monologue of the Play, Spoken by the King” in: Josef Penso de la Vega Asire ha-tikvah (Prisoners of Hope) (Amsterdam: Yosef Atias, 1672/3), 1–4.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Creator Bio

Joseph Penso de la Vega

1650–1692

A Sephardic merchant and poet born in Amsterdam, Joseph Penso de la Vega was descended from Portuguese New Christians. At the age of seventeen he wrote an allegorical drama in Hebrew, Asire ha-tikvah (The Prisoners of Hope). He was active in literary academies organized by the Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam, and, for a certain time, in a literary academy of Livorno, which fostered works in Spanish, his primary literary language. Following the financial crisis that struck Amsterdam in 1687, he published Confusión de confusiones (Confusion of Confusions), in which, with sharp wit, he described the workings of the bourse and the dangers awaiting imprudent investors.

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