Authors: José Saramago
He didn't have
to travel very far to leave behind him the
sad
present of the land of uz and find himself, instead,
surrounded by green mountains and lush valleys flowing
with streams of such pure, crystalline water as eye had never
seen nor mouth tasted. It could have been the garden of
eden of now fond memory, for the passing years had taken
with them many a painful recollection. And yet, there was
something false and artificial about that dazzling landscape,
as if it were a backdrop specially prepared for some purpose
quite indecipherable to someone riding a very ordinary
donkey and without a michelin guide to hand. Cain rode
past a large outcrop of rock that concealed a broad section
of the panorama and emerged on the other side at the
entrance to another valley, less verdant perhaps, but no less
attractive than those seen earlier, and there he saw a wooden
construction, which, given the shape of its component parts
and the colour of the materials it was made from, looked
very like a boat, or, to be more exact, a huge ark whose
presence there was all the more intriguing, because a boat,
if it was a boat, is usually built near water, and an ark,
certainly one of that size, isn't something one would leavein
a valley, waiting for who knows what. Curious, cain
decided to seek out a reliable source of information, in this
case, the people building that enigmatic boat or no less
enigmatic ark, either for their own use or under orders
from someone else. He made his way with the donkey down
to the shipyard, where he greeted those present and tried
to strike up a conversation, Beautiful place this, he said,
but the reply, as well as being a long time in coming, was
given as succinctly as possible, a merely confirmatory,
indifferent, impartial, non-committal yes. Cain went on,
A grand construction like this is the very last thing any
traveller, myself, for example, would expect to come across,
but this intentionally flattering hint went unheeded. It was
clear that the eight workers, four men and four women, had
no desire to fraternise with the intruder and made no attempt
to disguise the wall of hostility with which they defended
themselves against his advances. Cain decided to stop beating
about the bush and come straight to the point, So what are
you making, what is it, a boat, an ark, a house, he asked.
The oldest member of the group, a tall man, as strong as
samson, said only, It's not a house, And it's not an ark
either,
said cain, because arks always have
lids, and if this thing
had
a lid, no amount of human strength could lift it. The
man did not respond and made as if to move away, but cain
stopped him at the last moment, If it isn't a house and it
isn't an ark, then it must be a boat, he said, Don't answer
him, noah, said the older of the four women, the lord will
be angry with you if you talk too much. The man nodded
and said to cain, We have a lot to do and you're distracting
us from our work, please leave us alone and go on your way,
adding in a slightly threatening tone, As you can see, there
are four strong men here, myself and my sons, Fine, replied
cain, it would seem that the old rules of mesopotamian
hospitality, which have always been respected in our land,
have lost all value for the family of noah. At that precise
moment, the lord appeared, with a deafening roll of thunder
and accompanying pyrotechnics. He was wearing his work
clothes, rather than the usual luxurious vestments that he
could always rely on to reduce those whom he wanted to
impress to immediate obedience without having to resort
to divine dialectic. Noah and his family immediately prostrated
themselves on the ground, which was covered in wood
shavings, while the lord looked at cain in some surprise and
asked, What are you doing here, I haven't seen you since the
day you killed your brother, That's where you're wrong, lord,
we did see each other, only you didn't recognise me, in
abraham's tent by the oaks of mamre, before you destroyed
sodom, An excellent piece of work that, clean and efficient,
and more importantly, definitive, There's nothing definitive
in the world you created, poor job thought he was safe from
all misfortunes, but your wager with satan brought him
poverty and made of his body a running sore, at least that
was how he was when I left the land of uz, Not any more,
cain, not any more, his skin has healed completely and his
herds and flocks have doubled, now he has fourteen thousand
sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen
and a thousand asses, And how did he manage that, He
bowed to my authority, he recognised that my power is
absolute, limitless, that the only person I have to account
to is myself, that I never have to concern myself with considerations
of a personal nature, and that I am endowed, let
me say this to you now, with a conscience so flexible that
it agrees with whatever I do, And what about job's children,
who died beneath the rubble of a house, A minor detail of
little importance, he'll have another ten children, seven
boys
and three girls, to replace the ten
he lost, Just like the animals,
Exactly,
after all, children are the same as flocks, nothing
more. Noah and his family had got up from the ground
now and were listening in astonishment to the dialogue
between the lord and cain, which resembled that of two old
friends meeting again after a long separation. You haven't
told me what you came here to do, Oh, nothing special,
lord, besides, I didn't come here, I found myself here, Just
as you found yourself in sodom and in the land of uz, And
at mount sinai, and in jericho, and at
the tower of babel and in the land of nod, and at the sacrifice
of isaac, You've done a lot of travelling, Indeed, lord,
but it was not of my own choosing, I even wondered if these
constant changes that have taken me from one present to
another, now in the past, now in the future, were not your
work too, No, it's nothing to do with me, such primitive
skills, such tricks intended to
é
pater le bourgeois, are beyond
me, time does not exist for me, So you admit, then, that
there is another force in the universe, different from and
more powerful than yours, It's possible, but I'm not in the
habit of indulging in such idle speculations, one thing is
certain, though, you cannot leave this valley, and I would
advise you not to try, from now on, each exit will be guarded
by two cherubim bearing flaming swords and with orders
to kill anyone who approaches, Like the angel you placed
at the gates of eden, How do you know about that, My
parents often spoke about him. God turned to noah and
asked, Have you told this man what the boat is for, No, lord,
may my tongue fall from my mouth if I lie, my family are
my witnesses, You are a loyal servant, I did well to choose
you, Thank you, lord, now, if you don't mind my asking,
what should I do with this man, Take him with you on the
boat and make him one of your family, that way you will
have another man to give your daughters-in-law babies, their
husbands won't mind, I hope, They won't, I promise, and I
will do my best as well, for old as I am, I'm not so old as
to turn up my nose at a good-looking woman. Cain decided
to intervene, Would you mind telling me what you're talking
about, he asked, and the lord responded as if repeating a
speech he had given before and knew by heart, The earth
is corrupt and filled with violence, I find in it only corruption,
for all its inhabitants have strayed from the path, the
wickedness of man is great, every thought and desire incline
always and constantly towards evil, I repent ever having
created man, for he has grieved me to the heart, the end of
all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with
violence
through them, I will destroy them
along with the earth, I
have
chosen you, noah, to start a new race, which is why I
have ordered you to build an ark of gopher wood, and to
make rooms in the ark, and to cover it inside and out with
pitch, I commanded you to make it three hundred cubits
long, fifty cubits in breadth, and thirty cubits high and to
make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above,
and to set the door of the ark in its side, and to make it
with lower, second, and third decks, for I am going to bring
a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in
which
there is the breath of life under
heaven, everything that is
on
the earth will die, but I will establish my covenant with
you, noah, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons,
your wife and your sons' wives with you, and of every living
thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into
the
ark to keep them alive with you,
male and female, be they
birds,
quadrupeds or other animals, you must also take with
you the different kinds of food eaten by each species, and
store it up to serve as provisions for you and for them. This
was the lord's speech. Then cain said, A vessel of that size
and so heavily laden will never float, when the valley begins
to flood, no amount of water will be enough to lift the ark
off the ground, everyone will drown and the hoped-for
salvation will turn out to have been a mousetrap, Not
according to my calculations, said the lord, Your calculations
are wrong, a boat should be built next to water, not
in a valley surrounded by mountains at a vast distance from
the sea, normally, when you finish building a boat, you
carry it down to the water, and it's the sea itself or the
river,
if you're by a river, that lifts
the boat, you don't seem to
realise
that the reason a boat floats is because any object
partially or wholly submerged in a fluid experiences an
upward impulse equal to the weight of the volume of fluid
dislodged, it's the archimedes principle, May I give my
opinion, lord, asked noah, Speak, said god, who was clearly
much put out, Cain is right, lord, if we wait here for the
water to lift us, we will all end up drowned and there will
be no new human race. Furrowing his brow in thought,