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Chapter 9
1. When those who loved him were gathered around him he told them, ‘The Hour that I announce is the Hour of life,
2. ‘When men will stop fighting one another and will work together—to guarantee the greatest amount of possible happiness to the greatest number of people.’
3. Now one of them asked him, ‘Wouldn’t it be happiness—simply to live, like men in the golden age?’
4. He answered, ‘The golden age is not behind us, but before us—and it is called the future society.’
5. Then another asked, ‘Why has it taken so many centuries—to glimpse this golden age?’
6. He answered, ‘The future society is like a luxuriant flower—growing in rich soil.
7. ‘In this place there was once only barren rock—hard granite washed by rains.
8. ‘But on this granite lichens first vegetated, which were content with little—then among them mosses and hepatica.
9. ‘And there the first ones held rainwater—and seeds carried by the wind germinated on the rock and grew.
10. ‘Until the surface of the rock crumbled and was covered with sand and soil—rich enough to feed the luxuriant flower.
11. ‘Thus the future Society is possible only thanks to former forms—that have prepared the land where it will grow.’
12. But someone then spoke to test him, ‘The future Society will be born of violence.’
13. He said, ‘No woman gives birth without effort—but the child is born when its Hour has come.
14. ‘The future Society is like a chick in its shell—it has to break it violently, or else it won’t be able to come out.
15. ‘But it is not the violence that has given birth to the chick—like the seed and the food that was in the egg.
16. ‘It is thanks to the shell that it could develop and get strong—but it is now an obstacle to the new form of life.
17. ‘That’s why it breaks the shell that suffocates it—and scatters the useless debris.’
18. He also said, ‘The future Society is again like a great river—when it starts to swell after the rains.
19. ‘The trees and creepers of the islands obstruct its course—and sand forms barricades across its bed.
20. ‘Then the water piles up behind this obstacle that stops it—and it seems that the river stops flowing.
21. ‘But all of a sudden the dyke collapses, the trees break, the sand disperses—and the waters rush forth with impetuous violence.
22. ‘And this violence is necessary because it can’t stop flowing—and it’s vain to try to stop the great waters.
23. ‘But it’s not the violence that made the river grow and swell—but the great rains that fell and the barricade itself.’
24. Then the listeners understood and pressed around him. And he continued to speak to them in parables:
25. ‘But it happens that the waters break the barricade with violence—overflow their bed and ravage the fields and houses of men.
26. ‘That’s why those who know how to foresee get axes and pitchforks—watching out that nothing obstruct the river’s course.
27. ‘And if despite everything a barricade is formed, they rush to destroy it—in any way at all, with no eye to the danger.
28. ‘And some of them die, but is it not better to die—than to live deprived of everything and under constant threat?
29. ‘In truth I tell you: get yourselves everything you need—to not be taken by surprise when the Hour sounds.’
30. And the listeners said, ‘He’s right. We live deprived of everything and under constant threat.
31. ‘It’s better to confront everything than to live like this because we only have our chains to lose—and everything to gain.’
32. And they dispersed to announce these things—and advise their brothers to prepare themselves for when the Hour comes.
33. But someone denounced him saying, ‘He preaches violence and disorder.’ And those in power resolved to put him to death.
Chapter 8 * Chapter 10
Black Lung
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