Revenge
(The Second)
(The Second)
Lu Xun, Dec. 20, 1924
Tr. Huiwen Zhang, 2013; updated Jan. 20, 2014
¶1 Because he believed himself the Son of God, the King of
Israel, he was to be nailed to the cross.
¶2 Soldiers clothed him in a purple robe, put on him a crown of
thorns, celebrating and congratulating him; they took a reed to beat his head,
spat upon him, kneeled to worship him; after they had mocked him, they stripped
him of the purple robe, put on him his own clothes.
¶3 Behold, they are beating his head, spitting upon him,
worshiping him…
¶4 He was unwilling to drink the myrrh-medicated wine, yearning
to taste with discernment how the Israelites treat their Son of God, and, for a
relative eternity, to pity their future yet hate their present.
¶5 All around is hostility, all pitiable, all damnable.
¶6 Ping! Ping! The tip of a nail penetrates the center of
the palm; they will soon nail to death their Son of God. Pitiable people—woe… renders his pain tender.
Ping! Ping! The
tip of a nail penetrates the back of the foot, smashing to pieces a bone, and
anguish penetrates heart and marrow. Yet
they themselves are nailing to death their Son of God. Damnable people—woe… this renders his pain blissful.
¶7 The cross arose; he was suspended in the void.
¶8 He did not drink the myrrh-medicated wine, yearning to taste
with discernment how the Israelites treat their Son of God, and, for a relative
eternity, to pity their future yet hate their present.
¶9 All passers-by cursed him, the chief priests and scribes
mocked him as well, the two robbers who were nailed with him also ridiculed
him.
¶10 Behold, those who are nailed with him…
¶11 All around is hostility, all pitiable, all damnable.
¶12 He, in the anguish of hands and feet, tastes the
sorrow of the pitiable people who are nailing to death the Son of God and the
joy of the damnable people who will soon nail to death the Son of God,
anticipating the Son of God to be nailed to death soon. Suddenly, the agony of the smashed bone
penetrates heart and marrow, he sinks intoxicated into euphoria and compassion.[1]
¶13 His stomach swirled: swirls of the anguish of pity and
damnation.
¶14 Over all the earth, darkness.
¶15 “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?!” (translated: My God, why
have you forsaken me?!)
¶16 God had forsaken him. He was, after all, a “son of Man”; yet the
Israelites nailed to death even a “son of Man.”
¶17 The bodies of people who nailed to death the “Son of Man”
compared to those who nailed to death the “Son of God” are particularly more
blood-stained, blood-reeking.
[1] “Euphoria” appears four times in
Revenge I:
Thus each with this warmth bewitches, incites, and tugs the other,
with all their might desiring to cuddle, to kiss, to embrace, so as to gain life’s sinking, intoxicating euphoria.
But if using a sharp-pointed sword, one single strike, piercing
the peach-red, tenuous skin, bright red hot blood will spray arrows and with
all its warmth immediately flood the slaughterer; then, touching him with icy
breath, showing him pale lips, will cause him to lose all his humanity and gain life’s soaring, climaxing euphoria; as for the
slaughtered, he himself will be perpetually immersed in
life’s soaring, climaxing euphoria.
Yet the two of them in it, stark naked, gripping swords, stand
withered; with the gaze of the dead enjoying and examining the witheredness of
the passers-by, a bloodless slaughter, the two of them perpetually
immersed in life’s soaring, climaxing euphoria.
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