When a man dies
his body
is washed of earth
and carried from his house,
and then his things are carried out
and then the house
forgets him.
I want that.
Forget me, Jailer, Watcher
of Men. Why shut me
in life, in this hot box
of time? There are men
dead in the earth,
palace men, rag men,
rubble-grubbers, righteous,
sinners, asleep.
Why not me? I can't sleep.
Night scorches, I pant
for shade. How long,
this sentence?
_____________
I'm back in Job today, partly because I've been thinking about pain and suicide, a personal topic for me, and one much in the news just now. And partly because I'm letting (Maria says) deadline be the mother of invention. Anyway, this a candidate for the long awaited first part of a Job triptych. Here are parts two (which I love) and three (which is a bit shambling).
Raymond Scheindlin's translation of the Book of Job is one of the best pieces of Biblical translation I've ever come across. It was in reading his translation that I made this connection between "[a dead man] never goes back to his home / his place no longer knows him," in 7:15 and the various references to life as imprisonment or slavery in the rest of Job's first reply to Eliphaz (Job 6 and 7).
You might be interested in this website and companion book "Putting God on Trial- The Biblical Book of Job" (http://www.bookofjob.org). This commentary treats the Book of Job as a Hegelian theodicy and has been highly praised by some of the world's leading authorities on Job and by the Review of Biblical Literature. The author is a Canadian Anglican and criminal defense lawyer. The entire manuscript is online.
Robert Sutherland