The Same Sea by Amos Oz

Author:Amos Oz [Oz, Amos]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2015-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

A wandering merchant from Russia who was on his way to China

to take furs and precious stones from Nizhni to Nanking, and from Nanking

brought back jewelery and silk. He was fond of drinking and eating at

wayside inns, strange travellers' tales at night in front of a blazing fire,

and servant girls' favors on a straw palliasse by the light of a clay lamp.

He took pleasure in shrewd selling and in haggling for a bargain, fine

patient dealing, resembling courtship, or loveplay in which

he who lasts longest wins, and the swift have no advantage: he who desires

must feign indifference and cloak his eagerness with uncertainty. In the spring

he set his steps eastward and returned homeward in the fall, crossing

rivers and forests, steppes and mountain passes, and every year

the hoard of coins buried in his courtyard grew and grew.

One evening, in this hut, he ate his fill till midnight, paid

a girl to wait on his couch and warm his bedding,

and, when she had left, he settled comfortably on his back

to count and calculate how much he had gained this year,

how much the next would bring, and how much more

he would accumulate in the course of the decade. Until his eyelids

dropped and he slept and at daybreak the servant girl

shook his shoulders to no avail, so she raised her voice and cried,

frightening all the village. All this happened long ago

and has long since been forgotten. Soon you too.

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