The man before the machine which was like Ganesha, the god with the
elephant’s head, was no longer a human being. Merely a dripping piece
of exhaustion, from the pores of which the last powers of volition were
oozing out in large drops of sweat. Running eyes no longer saw the
manometer. The hand did not hold the lever—it clawed it fast in the
last hold which saved the mangled man-creature before it from falling
into the crushing arms of the machine.
The Pater-noster works of the New Tower of Babel turned their buckets
with an easy smoothness. The eye of the little machine smiled softly
and maliciously at the man who stood before it and who was now no more
than a babel.
“Father!” babbled the son of Joh Fredersen, “to-day, for the first
time, since Metropolis stood, you have forgotten to let your city and
your great machines roar punctually for fresh food.... Has Metropolis
gone dumb, father? Look at us! Look at your machines! Your god-machines
turn sick at the chewed-up cuds in their mouths—at the mangled food
that we are.... Why do you strangle its voice to death? Will ten hours
never, never come to an end? Our Father, which art in heaven—!”
But in this moment Joh Fredersen’s fingers were pressing the little
blue metal plate and the voice of the great Metropolis.
“Thank you, father!” said the mangled soul before the machine, which
was like Ganesha. He smiled. He tasted a salty taste on his lips and
did not know if it was from blood, sweat or tears. From out a red mist
of long-flamed, drawn-out clouds, fresh men shuffled on towards him.
His hand slipped from the lever and he collapsed. Arms pulled him up
and led him away. He turned his head aside to hide his face.
The eye of the little machine, the soft, malicious eye, twinkled at him
from behind.
“Good-bye, friend,” said the little machine.
Freder’s head fell upon his breast. He felt himself dragged further,
heard the dull evenness of feet tramping onwards, felt himself
tramping, a member of twelve members. The ground under his feet began
to roll; it was drawn upwards, pulling him up with it.
Doors stood open, double doors. Towards him came a stream of men.
The great Metropolis was still roaring.
Suddenly she fell dumb and in the silence Freder became aware of the
breath of a man at his ear, and of a voice—merely a breath—which
asked:
“She has called.... Are you coming?”
He did not know what the question meant, but he nodded. He wanted to
get to know the ways of those who walked, as he, in blue linen, in the
black cap, in the hard shoes.
With tightly closed eye-lids he groped on, shoulder to shoulder with an
unknown man.
She has called, he thought, half asleep. Who is that ... she...?
He walked and walked in smouldering weariness. The way would never,
never come to an end. He did not know where he was walking. He heard
the tramp of those who were walking with him like the sound of
perpetually falling water.
She has called! he thought. Who is that: she, whose voice is so
powerful that these men, exhausted to death by utter weariness,
voluntarily throw off sleep, which is the sweetest thing of all to the
weary—to follow her when her voice calls?
It can’t be very much further to the centre of the earth....
Still deeper—still deeper down?
No longer any light round about, only, here and there, twinkling pocket
torches, in men’s hands.
At last, in the far distance, a dull shimmer.
Have we wandered so far to walk towards the sun, thought Freder, and
does the sun dwell in the bowels of the earth?
The procession came to a standstill. Freder stopped too. He staggered
against the dry, cool stones.
Where are we, he thought—in a cave? If the sun dwells here, then she
can’t be at home now.... I am afraid we have come in vain.... Let us
turn back, brother.... Let us sleep....
He slid along the wall, fell on his knees, leant his head against the
stone ... how smooth it was.
The murmur of human voices was around him, like the rustling of trees,
moved by the wind....
He smiled peacefully. It’s wonderful to be tired....
Then a voice—a voice began to speak....
Oh—sweet voice, thought Freder dreamily. Tender beloved voice, your
voice, Virgin-mother! I have fallen asleep.... Yes, I am dreaming! I am
dreaming of your voice, beloved!
But a slight pain at his temple made him think: I am leaning my head
on stone ... I am conscious of the coldness which comes out of the
stone ... I feel coldness under my knees ... so I am not sleeping—I
am only dreaming ... suppose it is not a dream...? Suppose it is
reality...?
With an exertion of will which brought a groan from him he forced open
his eyes and looked about him.
A vault, like the vault of a sepulchre, human heads so closely crowded
together as to produce the effect of clods on a freshly ploughed field.
All heads turned towards one point: to the source of a light, as mild
as God.
Candles burnt with sword-like flames. Slender, lustrous swords of light
stood in a circle around the head of a girl, whose voice was as the
Amen of God.
The voice spoke, but Freder did not hear the words. He heard nothing
but a sound, the blessed melody of which was saturated with sweetness
as is the air of a garden of blossoms with fragrance. And suddenly
there sprang up above this melody the wild throb of a heart-beat. The
air stormed with bells. The walls shook under the surf of an invisible
organ. Weariness—exhaustion—faded out! He felt his body from head to
foot to be one single instrument of blissfulness—all strings stretched
to bursting point, yet tuned together into the purest, hottest, most
radiant accord, in which his whole being hung, quivering.
He longed to stroke with his hands the stones on which he knelt. He
longed to kiss with unbounded tenderness the stones on which he rested
his head. God—God—God—beat the heart in his breast, and every throb
was a thank-offering. He looked at the girl, and yet he did not see
her. He saw only a shimmer; he knelt before it.
Gracious one, formed his mouth. Mine! Mine! My beloved! How could the
world have existed before you were? How must God have smiled when he
created you! You are speaking?—What are you saying?—My heart is
shouting within me—I cannot catch your words.... Be patient with me,
gracious one, beloved!
Without his being aware of it, drawn by an invisible unbreakable cord,
he pushed himself forward on his knees, nearer and nearer to the
shimmer which the girl’s face was to him. At last he was so near that
he could have touched the hem of her dress with his outstretched hand.
“Look at me, Virgin!” implored his eyes. “Mother, look at me!”
But her gentle eyes looked out over him. Her lips said:
“My brothers....”
And stopped dumb, as though alarmed.
Freder raised his head. Nothing had happened—nothing to speak of, only
that the air which passed through the room had suddenly become audible,
like a raised breath, and that it was cool, as though coming in through
open doors.
With a faint crackling sound the swords of flame bowed themselves. Then
they stood still again.
“Speak, my beloved!” said Freder’s heart.
Yes, now she spoke. This is what she said:
“Do you want to know how the building of the Tower of Babel began, and
do you want to know how it ended? I see a man who comes from the Dawn
of the World. He is as beautiful as the world, and has a burning heart.
He loves to walk upon the mountains and to offer his breast unto the
wind and to speak with the stars. He is strong and rules all creatures.
He dreams of God and feels himself closely tied to him. His nights are
filled with faces.
“One hallowed hour bursts his heart. The firmament is above him and his
friends. ‘Oh friends! Friends!’ he cries, pointing to the stars. ‘Great
is the world and its Creator! Great is man! Come, let us build a tower,
the top of which reaches the sky! And when we stand on its top, and
hear the stars ringing above us, then let us write our creed in golden
symbols on the top of the tower! Great is the world and its creator!
And great is man!’
“And they set to, a handful of men, full of confidence, and they made
bricks and dug up to the earth. Never have men worked more rapidly, for
they all had one thought, one aim and one dream. When they rested from
work in the evening each knew of what the other was thinking. They did
not need speech to make themselves understood. But after some time they
knew: The work was greater than their working hands. Then they enlisted
new friends to their work. Then their work grew. It grew overwhelming.
Then the builders sent their messengers to all four winds of the world
and enlisted Hands, working Hands for their mighty work.
“The Hands came. The Hands worked for wages. The Hands did not even
know what they were making. None of those building Southwards knew
one of those digging toward the North. The Brain which conceived the
construction of the Tower of Babel was unknown to those who built it.
Brain and Hands were far apart and strangers. Brain and Hands became
enemies. The pleasure of one became the other’s burden. The hymn of
praise of one became the other’s curse.
“‘Babel!’ shouted one, meaning: Divinity, Coronation, Eternal, Triumph!
“‘Babel!’ shouted the other, meaning: Hell, Slavery, Eternal, Damnation!
“The same word was prayer and blasphemy. Speaking the same words, the
men did not understand each other.
“That men no longer understood each other, that Brain and Hands no
longer understood each other, was to blame that the Tower of Babel was
given up to destruction, that never were the words of those who had
conceived it written on its top in golden symbols: Great is the world
and its Creator! And great is man!
“That Brain and Hands no longer understand each other will one day
destroy the New Tower of Babel.
“_Brain and Hands need a mediator. The Mediator between Brain and Hands
must be the Heart._...”
She was silent. A breath like a sigh came up from the silent lips of
the listeners.
Then one stood up slowly, resting his fists upon the shoulders of the
man who crouched before him, and asked, raising his thin face with its
fanatical eyes to the girl:
“And where is _our_ mediator, Maria?”
The girl looked at him, and over her sweet face passed the gleam of a
boundless confidence.
“Wait for him,” she said. “He is sure to come.”
A murmur ran through the rows of men. Freder bowed his head to the
girl’s feet. His whole soul said:
“It shall be I.”
But she did not see him and she did not hear him.
“Be patient, my brothers!” she said. “The way which your mediator
must take is long.... There are many among you who cry, ‘Fight!
Destroy!’—Do not fight, my brothers, for that makes you to sin.
Believe me: One will come, who will speak for you—who will be the
mediator between you, the Hands, and the man whose Brain and Will are
over you all. He will give you something which is more precious than
anything which anybody could give you: To be free, without sinning.”
She stood up from the stone upon which she had been sitting. A movement
ran through the heads turned towards her. A voice was raised. The
speaker was not to be seen. It was as if they all spoke:
“We shall wait, Maria. But not much longer—!”
The girl was silent. With her sad eyes she seemed to be seeking the
speaker among the crowd.
A man who stood before her spoke up to her:
“And if we fight—where will you be then?”
“With you!” said the girl, opening her hands with the gesture of one
sacrificing. “Have you ever found me faithless?”
“Never!” said the men. “You are like gold to us. We shall do what you
expect of us.”
“Thank you,” said the girl, closing her eyes. With bowed head she stood
there, listening to the sound of retiring feet—feet which walked in
hard shoes.
Only when all about her had become silent and when the last footfall
had died away she sighed and opened her eyes.
Then she saw a man, wearing the blue linen and the black cap and the
hard shoes, kneeling at her feet.
She bent down. He raised his head. She looked at him.
And then she recognised him.
* * * * *
Behind them, in a vault that was shaped like a pointed devil’s-ear,
one man’s hand seized another man’s arm.
“Hush! Keep quiet!” whispered the voice, which was soundless and
yet which had the effect of laughter—like the laughter of spiteful
mockery.
* * * * *
The girl’s face was as a crystal, filled with snow. She made a movement
as if for flight. But her knees would not obey her. Reeds which stand
in troubled water do not tremble more than her shoulders trembled.
“If you have come to betray us, son of Joh Fredersen, then you will
have but little blessing from it,” she said softly, but in a clear
voice.
He stood up and remained standing before her.
“Is that all the faith you have in me?” he asked gravely.
She said nothing, but looked at him. Her eyes filled with tears.
“You ...” said the man. “What shall I call you? I do not know your
name. I have always called you just ‘you.’ In all the bad days and
worse nights, for I did not know if I should find you again, I always
called you only, ‘you’.... Will you tell me, at last, what your name
is?”
“Maria,” answered the girl.
“Maria.... That should be your name ... you did not make it easy for me
to find my way to you, Maria.”
“And why did you seek your way to me? And why do you wear the blue
linen uniform? Those condemned to wear it all their life long, live in
an underground city, which is accounted a wonder of the world in all
the five continents. It is an architectural wonder—that is true. It
is light and shining bright and a model of tidiness. It lacks nothing
but the sun—and the rain—and the moon by night—nothing but the sky.
That is why the children which are born there have their gnome-like
faces.... Do you want to go down into this city under the earth in
order the more to enjoy your dwelling which lies so high above the
great Metropolis, in the light of the sky? Are you wearing the uniform,
which you have on to-day, for fun?”
“No, Maria. I shall always wear it now.”
“As Joh Fredersen’s son?”
“He no longer has a son ... unless—you, yourself, give him back his
son.”
* * * * *
Behind them, in a vault that was shaped like a pointed devil’s-ear,
one man’s hand was laid upon another man’s mouth.
“It is written,” whispered a laugh: “Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and cleave unto his wife....”
* * * * *
“Won’t you understand me?” asked Freder. “Why do you look at me with
such stern eyes? You wish me to be a mediator between Joh Fredersen and
those whom you call your brothers.... There can be no mediator between
heaven and hell who never was in heaven and hell.... I never knew hell
until yesterday. That is why I failed so deplorably, yesterday, when I
spoke to my father for your brothers. Until you stood before me for the
first time, Maria, I lived the life of a dearly loved son. I did not
know what an unrealisable wish was. I knew no longing, for everything
was mine.... Young as I am, I have exhausted the pleasures of the
earth, down to the very bottom. I had an aim—a gamble with Death: A
flight to the stars.... And then you came and showed me my brothers....
From that day on I have sought you. I have so longed for you that I
should gladly and unhesitatingly have died, had somebody told me that
that was the way to you. But as it was, I had to live and seek another
way....”
“To me, or to your brothers...?”
“To you, Maria.... I will not make myself out to you to be better than
I am. I want to come to you, Maria—and I want you.... I love mankind,
not for its own sake, but for your sake—because you love it. I do not
want to help mankind for its own sake, but for your sake—because you
wish it. Yesterday I did good to two men; I helped one whom my father
had dismissed. And I did the work of the man, whose uniform I have
on.... That was my way to you.... God bless you....”
His voice failed him. The girl stepped up to him. She took his hands
in both her hands. She gently turned the palms upward, and considered
them, looked at them with her Madonna-eyes, and folded her hands
tenderly around his, which she carefully laid together.
“Maria,” he said, without a sound.
She let his hands fall and raised hers to his head. She laid her
finger-tips on his cheeks. With her finger-tips she stroked his
eyebrows, his temples, twice, three times.
Then he snatched her to his heart and they kissed each other....
He no longer felt the stones under his feet. A wave carried him, him
and the girl whom he held clasped to him as though he wished to die of
it—and the wave came from the bottom of the ocean, roaring as though
the whole sea were an organ; and the wave was of fire and flung right
up to the heavens.
Then sinking ... sinking ... endlessly gliding down—right down to the
womb of the world, the source of the beginning.... Thirst and quenching
drink ... hunger and satiation ... pain and deliverance from it ...
death and rebirth....
“You ...” said the man to the girl’s lips. “You are really the great
mediatress.... You are all that is most sacred on earth.... You are
all goodness.... You are all grace.... To doubt you is to doubt God....
Maria—Maria—you called me—here I am!”
* * * * *
Behind them, in a vault that was shaped like a pointed devil’s-ear,
one man leant towards another man’s ear.
“You wanted to have the Futura’s face from me.... There you have your
model....”
“Is that a commission?”
“Yes.”
* * * * *
“Now you must go, Freder,” said the girl. Her Madonna-eyes looked at
him.
“Go—and leave you here?”
She turned grave and shook her head.
“Nothing will happen to me,” she said. “There is not one, among those
who know this place, whom I cannot trust as though he were my blood
brother. But what is between us is nobody’s affair; it would vex
me to have to explain—” (and now she was smiling again)—“what is
inexplicable.... Do you see that?”
“Yes,” he said. “Forgive me....”
* * * * *
Behind them, in a vault that was shaped like a pointed devil’s-ear, a
man took himself away from the wall.
“You know what you have to do,” he said in a low voice.
“Yes,” came the voice of the other, idly, sleepily, out of the
darkness. “But wait a bit, friend.... I must ask you something....”
“Well?”
“Have you forgotten your own creed?”
For one second a lamp twinkled through the room, that was shaped like
a pointed devil’s ear, impaling the face of the man, who had already
turned to go, on the pointed needle of its brilliance.
“That sin and suffering are twin-sisters ... you will be sinning
against two people, friend....”
“What has that to do with you?”
“Nothing.... Or—little. Freder is Hel’s son....”
“And mine....”
“Yes....”
“It is he whom I do not wish to lose.”
“Better to sin once more?”
“Yes.”
“And—”
“To suffer. Yes.”
“Very well, friend,” and in the voice was an inaudible laugh of
mockery: “May it happen to you according to your creed...!”
* * * * *
The girl walked through the passages that were so familiar to her. The
bright little lamp in her hand roved over the roof of stone and over
the stone walls, where, in niches, the thousand-year-old dead slept.
The girl had never known fear of the dead; only reverence and gravity
in face of their gravity. To-day she saw neither wall nor dead. She
walked on, smiling and not knowing she did it. She felt like singing.
With an expression of happiness, which was still incredulous and yet
complete, she said the name of her beloved over to herself.
Quite softly: “Freder....” And once more: “Freder....”
Then she raised her head, listening attentively, standing quite
still....
It came back as a whisper: An echo?—No.
Almost inaudibly a word was breathed:
“Maria....”
She turned around, blissfully startled. Was it possible that he had
come back?
“Freder—!” she called. She listened.
No answer.
“Freder—!”
Nothing.
But suddenly there came a cool draught of air which made the hair at
her neck quiver, and a hand of snow ran down her back.
There came an agonized sigh—a sigh which would not come to an end....
The girl stood still. The bright little lamp which she held in her hand
let its gleam play tremblingly about her feet.
“Freder...?”
Now her voice, too, was only a whisper.
No answer. But, behind her, in the depths of the passage she would have
to pass through, a gentle, gliding slink became perceptible: feet in
soft shoes on rough stones....
That was ... yes, that was strange. Nobody, apart from her, ever came
this way. Nobody could be here. And, if somebody were here, then it was
no friend....
Certainly nobody whom she wanted to meet.
Should she let him by?—yes.
A second passage opened to her left. She did not know it well. But
she would not follow it up. She would only wait in it until the man
outside—the man behind her—had gone by.
She pressed herself against the wall of the strange passage, keeping
still and waiting quite silently. She did not breathe. She had
extinguished the lamp. She stood in utter darkness, immovable.
She listened: the gliding feet were approaching. They walked in
darkness as she stood in darkness. Now they were here. Now they
must ... they must go past.... But they did not go. They stood quite
still. Before the opening to the passage in which she stood, the feet
stopped still and seemed to wait.
For what...? For her...?
In the complete silence the girl suddenly heard her own heart.... She
heard her own heart, like pump-works, beating more and more quickly,
throbbing more and more loudly. These loud throbbing heartbeats must
also be heard by the man who kept the opening to the passage. And
suppose he did not stay there any longer ... suppose he came inside ...
she could not hear his coming, her heart throbbed so.
She groped, with fumbling hand, along the stone wall. Without
breathing, she set her feet, one before the other.... Only to get
away from the entrance.... Away from the place where the other was
standing....
Was she wrong? Or were the feet really coming after her? Soft, slinking
shoes on rough stones? Now the agonised, heavy breathing, heavier
still, and nearer ... cold breath on her neck.... Then—
Nothing more. Silence. And waiting. And watching—keeping on the
look-out....
Was it not as if a creature, such as the world had never seen:
trunkless, nothing but arms, legs and head ... but what a head!
God—God in heaven! ... was crouching on the floor before her, knees
drawn up to chin, the damp arms supported right and left, against the
walls, near her hips, so that she stood defenceless, caught? Did she
not see the passage lighted by a pale shimmer—and did not the shimmer
come from the being’s jelly-fish head?
“Freder!” she thought. She bit the name tightly between her jaws, yet
heard the scream with which her heart screamed it.
She threw herself forwards and felt—she was free—she was still
free—and ran and stumbled, and pulled herself up again and staggered
from wall to wall, knocking herself bloody, suddenly clutched into
space, stumbled, fell to the ground, felt.... Something lay there ...
what? No—No—No—!
The lamp had long since fallen from her hand. She raised herself to her
knees and clapped her fists to her ears, in order not to hear the feet,
the slinking feet coming nearer. She knew herself to be imprisoned in
darkness and yet opened her eyes because she could no longer bear the
circles of fire, the wheels of flame behind her closed lids—
And saw her own shadow thrown, gigantic, on the wall before her, and
behind her was light, and before her lay a man—
A man?—That was not a man.... That was the remains of a man, with
his back half leaning against the wall, half slipped down, and on his
skeleton feet, which almost touched the girl’s knees, were the slender
shoes, pointed and purple-red....
With a shriek which tore her throat, the girl threw herself up,
backwards—and then on and on, without looking round, pursued by the
light which lashed her own shadow in springs before her feet—pursued
by long, soft, feathery feet—by feet which walked in red shoes, by the
icy breath which blew at her back.
She ran, screamed and ran—
“Freder...! Freder...!”
Her throat rattled, she fell.
There were some stairs.... Crumbling stairs.... She pressed her
bleeding hands, right and left, against the stone wall, by the stone
steps. She dragged herself up. She staggered up, step by step.... There
was the top.
The stairs ended in a stone trap-door.
The girl groaned: “Freder...!”
She stretched both fists above her. She pushed head and shoulders
against the trap-door.
And one more groan: “Freder....”
The door rose and fell back with a crash.
Below—deep down—laughter....
The girl swung herself over the edge of the trap-door. She ran hither
and thither, with outstretched hands. She ran along walls, finding no
door. She saw the lustre which welled up from the depths. By this light
she saw a door, which was latchless. It had neither bolt nor lock.
In the gloomy wood glowed, copper-red, the seal of Solomon, the
pentagram.
The girl turned around.
She saw a man sitting on the edge of the trap-door and saw his smile.
Then it was as though she were extinguished, and she plunged into
nothing....