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.
The
stairway
to heaven
[Genesis 27:42]
Word soon reached Rebekah of Esau’s deadly threat,
So off she went to Isaac, who hadn’t left them yet.
“Jacob,” she said sternly, “will have to leave the town,
Maybe for a week or two, till Esau’s quietened down.
His absence can be justified by saying he’s gone to find
A wife deserving of his name, of his same rank and kind.”
Isaac liked his wife’s idea, he told his son to go
And stay with Becky’s parents for about a week or so.
He said that he should find a wife befitting of his name,
Preferably from Laban’s house, if it was all the same.
Then he asked the Lord to bless and guide young Jacob’s hand,
So one day he would govern all, within the promised land.
When Jacob’s mule was ready, and waiting with its load,
He kissed his folks a last goodbye and set off down the road.
He hardly stopped to eat or drink as long as there was light,
And when at last the evening came he lay down for the night.
He wasn’t very comfortable, his bed was made of stones,
Which didn’t really help to rest his tired aching bones.
He tossed and turned for ages before he closed his eyes,
But then a strange and vivid dream took him by surprise.
He saw a stairway stretching down from heaven to the ground,
With all the angels of the Lord climbing up and down.
When Jacob looked above him and saw the Lord appear,
His knees began to tremble and he was filled with fear.
The voice of God then rumbled out, it shook him to the bone,
“Everything you see,” he said, “will one day be your own.
The land that you are standing on and all you see is mine,
I promised it to Abraham and all his future line.”
Jacob woke up, terrified, as if he’d seen a ghost,
And pulling up his pillow-stone, he set it like a post.
When he’d got it upright, he sprinkled it with oil
To show he understood that he had slept on holy soil.
Then he vowed that if his trip resulted in success,
And if the future wife he found was nothing but the best,
Then he would make a pledge to God and worship him alone,
The pillow he had slept upon would be a sacred stone.
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