Latest / Science Fiction Books - Daily / 09 - Anthem - Ayn Rand

Transcript

09 - Anthem - Ayn Rand · Science Fiction Books - Daily

• 0:00
  Chapter nine. We have not written for many days. We did not wish
• 0:06
  to speak, for we needed no words to remember that which has happened to
• 0:11
  us. It was our second day in the forest that we heard steps behind
• 0:15
  us. We hid in the bushes and we waited. The steps came closer,
• 0:22
  and then we saw the fold of a white tunic among the trees,
• 0:25
  and a gleam of gold. We leapt forward. We ran to them,
• 0:31
  and we stood looking upon the Golden One. They saw us, and their
• 0:38
  hands closed into fists, and the fists pulled their arms down, as if
• 0:44
  they wished their arms to hold them, while their bodies swayed, and they
• 0:49
  could not speak. We dared not come too close to them. We asked,
• 0:55
  and our voice trembled, how come you to be here, Golden One?
• 1:02
  But they whispered, only we have found you. How came you to
• 1:10
  be in the forest, we asked. They raised their head, and there
• 1:15
  was a great pride in their voice. They answered, we have followed you.
• 1:23
  Then we could not speak, and they said, we heard that you
• 1:30
  had gone to the uncharted forest. For the whole city is speaking of it.
• 1:34
  So on the night of the day when we heard it, we ran
• 1:38
  away from the home of the peasants. We found the marks of your feet
• 1:42
  across the plain where no men walk. So we followed them, and we
• 1:49
  went into the forest, and we followed the path where the branches were broken
• 1:53
  by your body. Their white tunic was torn, and the branches had cut
• 1:59
  the skin of their own arms. But they spoke as if they had never
• 2:04
  taken notice of it, nor of weariness, nor of fear. We have
• 2:10
  followed you, they said, and we shall follow you wherever you go.
• 2:15
  If danger threatens you, we shall face it. Also. If it be
• 2:21
  death, we shall die with you. You are damned, and we wish
• 2:25
  to share your damnation. They looked upon us, and their voice was low,
• 2:31
  but there was bitterness and triumph in their voice. Your eyes are as
• 2:38
  a flame, but our brothers have neither hope nor fire. Your mouth is
• 2:45
  cut of granite, but our brothers are soft and humble. Your head is
• 2:50
  high, but our brothers cringe. You walk, but our brothers crawl.
• 2:57
  We wish to be damned with you, rather than be blessed with all of
• 3:00
  our brothers. Do as you please with us, but do not send us
• 3:07
  away from you. Then they knelt and bowed their golden head before us,
• 3:16
  we had never thought of that which we did. We bent to raise the
• 3:23
  Golden One to their feet, but when we touched them it was as if
• 3:28
  madness had stricken us. We seized their body, and we pressed our lips
• 3:32
  to theirs. The golden One breathed once, and their breath was a moan,
• 3:38
  and then their arms closed around us. We stood together for a long
• 3:45
  time, and we were frightened that we had lived for twenty one years and
• 3:50
  had never known what joy is possible to men. Then we said, our
• 3:59
  dearest one, fear nothing of the forest. There is no danger in solitude.
• 4:05
  We have no need of our brothers. Let us forget their good and
• 4:12
  our evil. Let us forget all things save that we are together, and
• 4:16
  that there is joy between us. Give us your hand. Look ahead.
• 4:24
  It is our own world, golden One, a strange, unknown world,
• 4:30
  but our own. Then we walked on into the forest, their hand in
• 4:36
  ours, And that night we knew that to hold the body of a woman
• 4:42
  in our arms is neither ugly nor shameful, but the one ecstasy granted to
• 4:48
  the race of men. We have walked for many days. The forest has
• 4:56
  no end, and we seek no end. But each day added to the
• 5:01
  chain of days between us and the city is like an added blessing. We
• 5:06
  have made a bow and many arrows. We can kill more birds than we
• 5:12
  need for our food. We find water and fruit in the forest. At
• 5:16
  night, we choose a clearing, and we build a ring of fires around
• 5:20
  it. We sleep in the midst of that ring, and the beasts dare
• 5:25
  not attack us. We can see their eyes, green and yellow as coals,
• 5:30
  watching us from the tree. Branches beyond the fire smolder as a crown
• 5:35
  of jewels around us, and smoke stands still in the air in columns made
• 5:42
  blue by the moonlight. We sleep together in the midst of the ring,
• 5:47
  the arms of the Golden One around us, their head upon our breast.
• 5:53
  Some day we shall stop and build a house, when we shall have gone
• 5:58
  far enough. But we do not have to hasten. The days before us
• 6:05
  are without end, like the forest. We cannot understand this new life which
• 6:12
  we have found, yet it seems so clear and so simple. When questions
• 6:16
  come to puzzle us, we walk faster, then turn and forget all things
• 6:21
  as we watch the Golden One following. The shadows of leaves fall upon their
• 6:28
  arms as they spread the branches apart, but their shoulders are in the sun.
• 6:33
  The skin of their arms is like a blue mist, but their shoulders
• 6:38
  are white and glowing, as if the light fell not from above, but
• 6:42
  rose from under the skin. We watched the leaf which has fallen upon their
• 6:47
  shoulder, and it lies at the curve of their neck, and a drop
• 6:54
  of dew glistens upon it like a jewel. They approach us, and they
• 6:58
  stop laughing, noing what we think, and they wait obediently, without question,
• 7:04
  till it pleases us to turn and go on. We go on,
• 7:10
  and we bless the earth under our feet. But questions come to us again
• 7:15
  as we walk in silence. If that we have found is the corruption of
• 7:20
  solitude, then what can men wish for save corruption? If this is the
• 7:28
  great evil of being alone, then what is good and what is evil?
• 7:34
  Everything which comes from the many is good, everything which comes from one is
• 7:40
  evil. Thus we have been taught with our first breath, we have broken
• 7:46
  the law, but we have never doubted it. Yet now, as we
• 7:50
  walk the forest, we are learning to doubt. There is no life for
• 7:55
  men save in useful toil for the good of their brothers. But we live
• 8:00
  not when we toiled for our brothers, we were only weary. There is
• 8:07
  no joy for men save the joy shared with all their brothers. But the
• 8:13
  only things which taught us joy were the power created in our wires and the
• 8:18
  Golden One. And both these joys belonged to us alone. They came from
• 8:22
  us alone. They bear no relation to our brothers, and they do not
• 8:26
  concern our brothers in any way. Thus do we wonder there is some error,
• 8:33
  one frightful error, in the thinking of men. What is that error?
• 8:39
  We do not know, But the knowledge struggles within us, struggles to
• 8:43
  be borne to day. The Golden One stopped suddenly and said, we love
• 8:50
  you. But then they frowned and shook their head and looked at us helplessly.
• 8:56
  No, they whispered, that is not what we wished to say.
• 9:01
  They were silent. Then they spoke slowly, and their words were halting,
• 9:07
  like the words of a child learning to speak for the first time. We
• 9:11
  are one alone and only, and we love you, who are one alone
• 9:18
  and only. We looked into each other's eyes, and we knew that the
• 9:24
  breath of a miracle had touched us, and fled and left us groping vainly,
• 9:31
  and we felt torn, torn for some word we could not find.
• 9:37
  End Chapter nine,