27 Φεβ 2010

Translation Attempt #3

Nikos Kazantzakis's
"The Last Temptation of Christ"
excerpt from Chapter X

Far out yonder, in the town of Nazareth, Maria, the wife of Joseph-the-Carpenter, had the oil lamp lit and her door open in her humble home, and was spinning the yarn she had woven; she was spinning, in a hurry; she had made up her mind to get up, roam around the villages and look for her son. She was spinning; yet her mind was wandering elsewhere, passing by Magdala and Capharnaum, wandering, all alone and desperate, all around the shore of Gennesaret lake, looking for her son. He had run away again, whipped by the cane of God, no mercy for him, no mercy for me, what have we done? Are these the joys and the glories we were promised? What for the blooming of Joseph's staff, what for my marriage to that old man, what for the lightning, the seeding of this moon-stricken son in my womb? An almond I was, in full bloom, when I held him in my bosom, all blossomed I was, head-to-toe; the neighbours passing by, proud of me, they would say: “Thou, Maria, art blessed of all women!”. Caravans passing by, they would halt. “Who is this almond, all flower?”, they would say and step off their camels with offerings at my feet. And suddenly, a wind blew and I withered. I cross arms over weary breasts: “Lord, thy will has been done; Thou bloomed me, thou blew me, I withered; Is not there any hope to blossom again, Lord?

Is not there any hope for peace of mind?” the son also wondered, when, early in the morrow, wandering around the lake, he saw the monastery, stuck on the green-red rocks. “The nearer I walk to the monastery, the more my heart shivers; why? Is not this the right way, Lord? Do Thou not force my step towards this holy hermitage? What for do Thou refuse to give a hand and soothe my heart?”


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