Melukhat Sha’ul (The Kingdom of Saul)

Joseph Ha-Efrati

1826

Act One

Saul [upon returning from smiting the Amalekites]. Jonathan and his other sons.

Saul:
My fury still burns within my heart like a flame of fire!
Even after I have smitten him, I have found no place of rest;
An adversary of the children of my people when they went up from Egypt,
This day, I have felled him with an avenging sword,
Almighty God, already from that time, admonished us: “Destroy his memory for eternity!”
Jonathan:
Just as you have subdued this Amalekite,
So too, my father, the king, will you humble all your foes;
The seed of Israel will once more live under your scepter,
Every man securely beneath his vine and his fig tree.
Saul:
Joy, fear, exultation, sadness, rage within me—
What is strength and salvation to me on this day?
O my delightful children, I can still vividly recall
The day on which I prophesied and was turned into another person!
Within my soul was poured out a spirit of grace, mixed with salvation.
My soul still experiences the pleasantness of the words of the Seer,
For they have dripped wine onto my palate sweeter than honeycombs.—
That I would rule over Israel I knew full well,
To save them from the hands of evildoers, filled with violence.
But will I, as the years wear on, also go forth in royal apparel before the men of the army?
Will I once more overpower the enemy and subdue him,
As I did unto those who were fighting over Jabesh?—This I do not know!
Jonathan:
See, my father, that you have saddened my heart with your words.—
Strengthen yourself and tend the flock, the flock of your inheritance!
These scattered sheep, the sheep that have been driven away—

Saul [holding Jonathan’s hand]:

Behold, you are the man who delights my heart! You are a mighty man of valor—
This day too, if I should cease to rule over Israel
Jeshurun will not perish, Jacob will not be obliterated,
If you, Jonathan, are to lead this nation.—
But from me has been taken the majesty, the glory of the crown.
From the day I returned from battle, I have found no repose,
And from time to time I see an image from afar
Frightening and awesome, clothed in the king’s suit of armor,
A trampled crown cast beneath his feet.—
I have not ceased being king; I have ceased to rule—
The majesty of kingship is not with me; the heart of kingship too is nonexistent,
Like a lily torn to pieces in the vulture’s mouth
Shall it be cast away into one of the valleys in the wilderness.—

 

Translated by

David E. 
Cohen

.

 

Credits

Joseph (ha-Efrati) Troplowitz, Melukhat Shaʼul: ha-melekh ha-rishon ʻal Yeshurun (Vienna: Anton fon Shmid, 1829), https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hwsn1g&view=1up&seq=1.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.

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Creator Bio

Joseph Ha-Efrati

1770–1804

Born in Troplowitz, Silesia (now Opawica, Poland), Joseph (Yosef) Ha-Efrati (Joseph Troplowitz) was a Hebrew poet and playwright. Although his most significant play, Melukhat Sha’ul (The Kingdom of Saul; it was also translated into Yiddish), was based on biblical tales, Ha-Efrati often wrote on contemporary subjects, in the form of eulogies for important maskilim, traditional rabbis, and statesmen, as well as poems to commemorate historical events. He was influenced by other writers of the Haskalah as well as non-Jewish Enlightenment authors including Goethe, Schiller, and Rousseau. Ha-Efrati lived in Ratibor (Racibórz) and Prague.

Related Guide

Theater in Jewish Culture, 1750–1880

The novelty in Jewish performing arts in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries involved the adaptation of traditional materials into new forms, as well as a turn to performing arts that were unconnected to religious life. 

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