Act 1 Scene 4: Escape from Arsenal

 or how I learned to love Charlie Hebdo's Revenge, or Goldfinger's Minsky Moment


   
You shall not see the fierce people
a people of a deep speech that you can not comprehend
 of a strange language that you can not understand.



Look on Tziyon, the city of our solemnities
your eyes shall see Yerushalayim a quiet habitation
a tent that shall not be removed
the stakes whereof shall never be plucked up
neither shall any of the cords of it be broken.

He shall dwell on high
 his place of defense shall be the Arsenal of rocks
 his bread shall be given him
 his waters shall be sure.

The Second Norn

[To the first.]

Where for our spinning and singing
Wilt thou fasten the rope?

The First Norn

[While she loosens a golden ropes from herself and ties one end of it to a branch

of the pine-tree.]



I sing and wind the rope
Badly or well, as may be.
At the world-ash-tree
Once I wove,
When from the stem
There bourgeoned strong
The boughs of a sacred wood.
In the shadows cool
A fountain flowed;
Wisdom whispered
Low from its wave;
Of holy things I sang.
A dauntless god
Came to drink at the well;
For the draught he drank
He paid with the loss of an eye.
From the world-ash-tree
Wotan broke a holy bough;
From the bough he cut
And shaped the shaft of a spear.

As time rolled on the wood
Wasted and died of the wound;
Sere, leafless and barren,
Wan withered the tree;
Sadly the flow
Of the fountain failed;
Troubled grew
My sorrowful song.
And now no more
At the world-ash-tree I weave;
I needs must fasten
Here on the pine-tree my rope.
Sing, O sister--
Catch as I throw--
Canst thou tell us why?

The Second Norn

[Winds the rope thrown to her round a projecting rock at the entrance of the cave.]



Runes of treaties
Well weighed and pondered
Cut were by Wotan
In the shaft,
Which wielding, he swayed the world.
A hero bold
In fight then splintered the spear,
The hallowed haft
With its treaties cleaving in twain.
Then bade Wotan
Walhall's heroes

Hew down the world-ash-tree
Forthwith,
Both the stem and boughs sere and barren.
The ash-tree sank;
Sealed was the fountain that flowed.
Round the sharp edge
Of the rock I wind the rope
Sing, O sister,
Catch as I throw;
Further canst thou tell?

The Third Norn

[Catching the rope and throwing the end behind her.]



The castle stands
By giants upreared.
With the gods and the holy
Host of the heroes
Wotan sits in his hall;
And round the walls
Hewn logs are heaped,
High up-piled,
Ready for burning:
The world-ash-tree these were once.
When the wood
Flares up brightly and burns,
In its fire
Shall the fair hall be consumed.
And then shall the high Gods' downfall
Dawn in darkness for aye.
Know ye yet more,
Begin anew winding the rope;
Again I throw it
Back from the north.
Spin and sing, O my sister.

[She throws the rope to the second Norn, and the second throws it to the first, who

loosens the rope from the bough and ties it on to another.]

Limes Germanicus



Hadith 1:33

Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Amr:
The Prophet said, "Whoever has the following four characteristics will be a pure

hypocrite and whoever has one of the following four characteristics will have one

characteristic of hypocrisy unless and until he gives it up.

1. Whenever he is entrusted, he betrays.

2. Whenever he speaks, he tells a lie.

3. Whenever he makes a covenant, he proves treacherous.

4. Whenever he quarrels, he behaves in a very imprudent, evil and insulting

manner."

Your heart shall muse on the terror
Where is he who counted
where is he who weighed the tribute?
where is he who counted the towers?