1981–1990 | |
Poem:
Alasdair Gray © 2005 | |
EARTH Who was before I am dark without limbs, dancing, spinning space without heat who was before I am alight without body, blazing, dividing continents on rocking mud who was before I am breathing without eyes, floating, rooted bloody with outcry who was before I am a singing ground, wormy-dark, alight aloud with leaves, eyes and gardeners, the last plants I grew who uplifted you who was before I am? GOD Who is before you now! I grasp all ground, mother. The gardeners you grew were common men, a brood too silly and shapeless to be any good outside my state, which has made them new. They cannot remember being born by you. They are my image now. I am who they all want to obey, or if not obey, be. EARTH Not Prometheus. GOD Yes, Prometheus! Punishment is changing him into a cracked mirror of me. (After 2500 years GOD tries persuading PROMETHEUS to
serve him.) GOD I am not the stark power who chained you here. I am softened by what you endured, while my laws have made you a hard reflection of the tyrant I once was. It cannot be right to enthrone a killing revenge the world should have outgrown, or if right, then right will make greater wrong. PROMETHEUS It is right to give back what you stole – liberty. You see me as I am. You cannot see who I will become when I am free. Why do you think I will kill? GOD Your every glance threatens me terrible ill. PROMETHEUS I am in pain! My illness, the illness you dread, is yours, is you! GOD Then endure my terrible nature! I must endure it too. (God has lost his temper. Prometheus laughs bitterly) PROMETHEUS At last you unmask, old man and show what you are again: the ruler of a kingdom kept by pain. All history has added nothing to you but a mad wish to be pitied for what you do. | |||
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