“Do you remember when you read us the sixteen verses of the fourth
chapter of Genesis and we argued about them?”
“I do indeed. And that’s a long time ago.”
“Ten years nearly,” said Lee. “Well, the story bit deeply into me and I went
into it word for word. The more I thought about the story, the more
profound it became to me. Then I compared the translations we have—and
they were fairly close. There was only one place that bothered me. The
King James version says this—it is when Jehovah has asked Cain why he is
angry. Jehovah says, ‘If thou doest well, shall thou not be accepted? and if
thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire,
and thou shalt rule over him.’ It was the ‘thou shalt’ that struck me, because
it was a promise that Cain would conquer sin.”
Samuel nodded. “And his children didn’t do it entirely,” he said.
Lee sipped his coffee. “Then I got a copy of the American Standard Bible.
It was very new then. And it was different in this passage. It says, ‘Do thou
rule over him.’ Now this is very different. This is not a promise, it is an
order. And I began to stew about it. I wondered what the original word of
the original writer had been that these very different translations could be
made.”
Samuel put his palms down on the table and leaned forward and the old
young light came into his eyes. “Lee,” he said, “don’t tell me you studied
Hebrew!”
Lee said, “I’m going to tell you. And it’s a fairly long story. Will you have a
touch of ng-ka-py?”
“You mean the drink that tastes of good rotten apples?”
“Yes. I can talk better with it.”
“Maybe I can listen better,” said Samuel.
While Lee went to the kitchen Samuel asked, “Adam, did you know about
this?”
“No,” said Adam. “He didn’t tell me. Maybe I wasn’t listening.”
Lee came back with his stone bottle and three little porcelain cups so thin
and delicate that the light shone through them. “Dlinkee Chinee, fashion,”
he said and poured the almost black liquor. “There’s a lot of wormwood in
this. It’s quite a drink,” he said. “Has about the same effect as absinthe if
you drink enough of it.”
Samuel sipped the drink. “I want to know why you were so interested,” he
said.
“Well, it seemed to me that the man who could conceive this great story
would know exactly what he wanted to say and there would be no
confusion in his statement.”
“You say ‘the man.’ Do you then not think this is a divine book written by
the inky finger of God?”
“I think the mind that could think this story was a curiously divine mind.
We have had a few such minds in China too.”
“I just wanted to know,” said Samuel. “You’re not a Presbyterian after all.”
“I told you I was getting more Chinese. Well, to go on, I went to San
Francisco to the headquarters of our family association. Do you know about
them? Our great families have centers where any member can get help or
give it. The Lee family is very large. It takes care of its own.”
“I have heard of them,” said Samuel.
“You mean Chinee hatchet man fightee Tong war over slave girl?”
“I guess so.”
“It’s a little different from that, really,” said Lee. “I went there because in
our family there are a number of ancient reverend gentlemen who are great
scholars. They are thinkers in exactness. A man may spend many years
pondering a sentence of the scholar you call Confucius. I thought there
might be experts in meaning who could advise me.
“They are fine old men. They smoke their two pipes of opium in the
afternoon and it rests and sharpens them, and they sit through the night and
their minds are wonderful. I guess no other people have been able to use opium well.”
Lee dampened his tongue in the black brew. “I respectfully submitted my
problem to one of these sages, read him the story, and told him what I
understood from it. The next night four of them met and called me in. We
discussed the story all night long.”
Lee laughed. “I guess it’s funny,” he said. “I know I wouldn’t dare tell it to
many people. Can you imagine four old gentlemen, the youngest is over
ninety now, taking on the study of Hebrew? They engaged a learned rabbi.
They took to the study as though they were children. Exercise books,
grammar, vocabulary, simple sentences. You should see Hebrew written in
Chinese ink with a brush! The right to left didn’t bother them as much as it
would you, since we write up to down. Oh, they were perfectionists! They
went to the root of the matter.”
“And you?” said Samuel.
“I went along with them, marveling at the beauty of their proud clean
brains. I began to love my race, and for the first time I wanted to be
Chinese. Every two weeks I went to a meeting with them, and in my room
here I covered pages with writing. I bought every known Hebrew
dictionary. But the old gentlemen were always ahead of me. It wasn’t long
before they were ahead of our rabbi; he brought a colleague in. Mr.
Hamilton, you should have sat through some of those nights of argument
and discussion. The questions, the inspection, oh, the lovely thinking—the
beautiful thinking.
“After two years we felt that we could approach your sixteen verses of the
fourth chapter of Genesis. My old gentlemen felt that these words were very
important too—’Thou shalt’ and ‘Do thou.’ And this was the gold from our
mining: ‘Thou mayest.’ ‘Thou mayest rule over sin.’ The old gentlemen
smiled and nodded and felt the years were well spent. It brought them out of
their Chinese shells too, and right now they are studying Greek.”
Samuel said, “It’s a fantastic story. And I’ve tried to follow and maybe I’ve
missed somewhere. Why is this word so important?”
Lee’s hand shook as he filled the delicate cups. He drank his down in one
gulp. “Don’t you see?” he cried. “The American Standard translation orders
men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James
translation makes a promise in ‘Thou shalt,’ meaning that men will surely
triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou
mayest’—that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the
world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if
‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’ Don’t you see?”
“Yes, I see. I do see. But you do not believe this is divine law. Why do you
feel its importance?”
“Ah!” said Lee. “I’ve wanted to tell you this for a long time. I even
anticipated your questions and I am well prepared. Any writing which has
influenced the thinking and the lives of innumerable people is important.
Now, there are many millions in their sects and churches who feel the order,
‘Do thou,’ and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions
more who feel predestination in ‘Thou shalt.’ Nothing they may do can
interfere with what will be. But “Thou mayest’! Why, that makes a man
great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth
and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his
course and fight it through and win.” Lee’s voice was a chant of triumph.
Adam said, “Do you believe that, Lee?”
“Yes, I do. Yes, I do. It is easy out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw
oneself into the lap of deity, saying, ‘I couldn’t help it; the way was set.’
But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no
choice, a bee must make honey. There’s no godliness there. And do you
know, those old gentlemen who were sliding gently down to death are too
interested to die now?”
Adam said, “Do you mean these Chinese men believe the Old Testament?”
Lee said, “These old men believe a true story, and they know a true story
when they hear it. They are critics of truth. They know that these sixteen
verses are a history of humankind in any age or culture or race. They do not
believe a man writes fifteen and three-quarter verses of truth and tells a lie
with one verb. Confucius tells men how they should live to have good and
successful lives. But this—this is a ladder to climb to the stars.” Lee’s eyes
shone. “You can never lose that. It cuts the feet from under weakness and
cowardliness and laziness.”
Adam said, “I don’t see how you could cook and raise the boys and take
care of me and still do all this.”
“Neither do I,” said Lee. “But I take my two pipes in the afternoon, no more
and no less, like the elders. And I feel that I am a man. And I feel that a
man is a very important thing—maybe more important than a star. This is
not theology. I have no bent toward gods. But I have a new love for that
glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the
universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed—because ‘Thou
mayest.’ ”
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