Classic Poem

I

Our eldest son is like Ishmael, Jacob is like you;
therefore, you like Esau better:
because he is a hunter, a man of the fields,
can bring you venison from distant cliffs,
is strong, and covered with hair like a ram;
but Jacob who is like you, a quiet man, dwelling in tents, is the better.
Esau is like a club, Jacob a knife,
Esau is stupid, Jacob shrewd,
Jacob is like my brother Laban.

My father, sit and eat of my venison.
How is it that you have found it so quickly?
God helped me.
Come near that I may feel you, my son,
whether you are my very son Esau or not;
the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are Esau's.
Are you my son Esau?
I am.
Come near now and kiss me, my son.

How dreadful are these cliffs!
I who have always lived in booths,
seldom far from the song of women at the doors,
or at the farthest, near the shepherd's flute — .
When Abraham's servant came to us,
he brought gifts of clothing, jewels of silver and gold;
you came with empty hands, it seemed;
but my cattle have been well cared for.
(Can Jacob match himself against Laban,
a young man who has nothing among strangers,
against a man grown grizzled among strong and crafty men?)

The seven years that I served for you, Rachel,
were but a few days.

Why have you cheated me?
In our place the younger is not given before the first-born.
Had Rachel been married first, the tears of Leah
would have made your marriage bitter.

When this beauty of which you keep telling me is gone,
as the petals are shaken from a tree —
surely, although they are so many, at last they have all fallen —
Leah now hires you of me with the mandrakes
her eldest finds in the field,
but who will find me anything in those days?

My companions so many nights,
physicians to whom I told my secrets,
I touch you:
you are wood;
so is the staff that helps us on our way,
the spoon that feeds us, and at last our coffin.
Does Laban among sons and brothers need you?
We need you,
a shepherd, women, children, and a flock of sheep,
among the mountains in the wilderness. ( She steals the idols .)

Why have you stolen away,
and carried away my daughters as if they were captives of the sword?
Why did you not tell me,
that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs,
with drum and harp?
Why did you not let me kiss my sons and daughters?
The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks my flocks,
all that you see is mine;
but what can I do to these, my daughters,
or to the children whom they have borne?

How unworthy I am of the kindness which you have shown me,
God of Abraham and Isaac,
for with my staff I crossed the Jordan,
and am now two companies.
Deliver me now from the hand of Esau!
And whose are the children?
My children.
And what meant the company I met?
To find favor in your sight.
I have enough. Let that which you have be yours.

Look, Joseph is coming, the master of dreams.
What do the camels carry?
Spicery and balm and myrrh to Egypt.
What profit shall we have in the death of our brother?
Lift him out of the pit and sell him to these for pieces of silver;
and dip his coat in a goat's blood,
and send it to our father,
and say, we have found this and do not know whether it is your son's coat or not;
and he will think a beast tore Joseph to pieces.