INTRODUZIONE
“A New World” è il primo libro di Mosè, più noto come la Genesi, raccontato in modo unico. Versi scorrevoli in rima baciata ed un incalzante ritmo trasportano il lettore dalle delizie verdeggianti del Giardino dell’Eden, oltre Noè e l’alluvione e le avventure di Abramo e Isacco, fino all’arrivo di Giuseppe in Egitto e la sua ascesa al potere come braccio destro del Faraone. Uno stile scanzonato ma mai irriverente, porta in vita i personaggi di questa storia biblica e fa di ‘A New World’ una lettura molto piacevole sia per bambini che per adulti.
Per trarre il massimo beneficio dalla traccia audio, si consiglia di fare l’ascolto almeno una volta prima di passare alla lettura del testo.
The
tower
of Babel
[Genesis 10:1]
As the years went rolling by both Japheth, Ham, and Shem
Had children, who had children, who had children, once again.
There was Nimrod the hunter, who could bring a tiger down,
While Asshur, the architect, built many a fancy town.
And once again the population tended to expand,
Till lots of little nations were spread across the land.
There was just one language, though, which everybody spoke,
So everybody understood when someone told a joke.
It didn’t matter who was shouting, whispering, or praying,
Everyone could understand what everyone was saying.
The people got together and started to create,
Some ideas were pretty good, but some were not so great.
One day they thought of building a multi-storey tower,
Convinced that it would symbolise their talent and their power.
To make the building really tall, as was their intention,
They built with bricks and mortar, a trendy new invention.
They planned to make it tall enough to reach into the sky,
So they could climb up to the top and look God in the eye.
The architects drew up the plans and guided operations,
The engineers took measurements, the diggers dug foundations.
Everybody lent a hand, driven by desire,
To see their tower rising up, higher and higher and higher.
Everybody from the boss to the brickie with his hod,
Was certain they would soon be seeing eye to eye with God.
When the Lord discovered what was going on in Babel,
He put his knife and fork down and got up from the table.
He started pacing up and down, trying to understand
Why it was that everything was getting out of hand.
Man was not content, it seemed, to merely live and die,
But felt he had a right to sit with God, up in the sky!
Pacing up and down, he cried, “This whole thing is absurd!”
Then pausing to reflect on this, he said the strangest word.
The word that God came out with was, “Friddle-froddle-fruddle”,
And everybody’s tongues got tied and in a dreadful muddle.
A thousand different languages is what the good Lord used,
So man would be for evermore divided and confused.
It didn’t matter who was shouting, whispering, or praying,
Nobody could understand what anyone was saying.
What was bad for somebody, for someone else was good,
Orders were not carried out, or worse, misunderstood.
The people stopped their building, they gave up on their plan,
And the tower became a symbol of the pride and fall of man.
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