Chapter 4 Mary Magdalene

I first met him in June.He was walking in the wheat field, and the maids and I happened to pass by.He is alone. His gait was different from others, and the way he walked was something I had never seen before. Others do not walk like him.I still can't tell whether his pace is fast or slow. My maids pointed at him and whispered shyly.I also stopped and raised my hand to greet him.But he didn't turn to look at me.I became annoyed and discouraged, and my whole body was cold and shivering as if I had fallen into an ice cave. I dreamed of him that night.Someone later told me that I used to scream in my sleep and toss and turn in bed.

I saw him again in August, this time through the window.He sat under the cypress tree opposite my garden, as motionless as the stone statues of Antioch and other cities of the Northland. My Egyptian servant came and said, "Here comes the man again, sitting across from your garden." I watched him, and my soul trembled with me, because he was so handsome. His body is otherworldly, the various parts of the body are so harmonious. I put on my Damascus brocade and left the house and went to him. Is it my loneliness or his fragrance that draws me to him?Is the hunger in my eyes begging for his beauty, or is his beauty seeking my gaze?

These, I still do not understand. I go to him.The clothes on my body are fragrant, and the shoes that the Roman officer gave me are shining with gold.As I approached him, I greeted him, "Good morning!" He answered, "Good morning, Miriam." He looked at me like no one had ever seen me with his night eyes.I suddenly felt as if I was naked, and I was shy. But he just said, "Good morning!" I asked, "Won't you come to my house?" He said, "Am I already in your house?" I didn't understand what he meant then, but I do now. I asked again, "Would you like to have some wine and bread with me?"

He answered, "Yes, Miriam, but not now." "Not now, not now." In the few words he spoke, there was the sound of the sea, the sound of the wind, and the language of the trees; when he said these words to me, life was talking about death. Note, my friend, that I was dead, a woman who forsaken her soul.I was then, not the me you see now.At that time, I belonged to all men and belonged to no one.People call me a whore and say I have seven devils in me.I am cursed and hated by men. Since his dawn-like eyes looked into my eyes, all the stars in my night disappeared suddenly, I became Miriam, Miriam no longer someone else's plaything, I no longer belonged to the land I knew, I was in the new The world has found itself.

I begged him again: "Come to my house, and have bread and wine with me." He said, "Why did you invite me to be your guest?" I replied, "I ask you to come to our house." It was all the earth and sky in my heart calling to him. He glanced at me, and the sun in his eyes was shining on me.He said: "You have many lovers, but who has I really love you. Other men stay with you, but they love themselves; I love you for yourself. Other men look at your beauty, but this Beauty fades quicker than their years; but I see in you a beauty that never fades, that will not shy away from looking in the mirror, nor will it be affected by others, in the late autumn of your days. offend."

"Only I love what you can't see in you." Then he whispered, "Come on, if you don't want me to sit quietly under the shade of your cypress tree, I will go my way." I cried and said, "Lord, come to my house. I want to scent incense for you and wash your feet with a silver plate. Although you are a stranger, you are not a stranger. I beg you, come to my house." !" At this moment he stood up, looked at me with a smile like the four seasons overlooking the fields, and said, "Everyone loves you for themselves, but I love you for you." Then he walked away.

But no one has ever walked the path he walked.Is he a breath from my garden to the east, or a storm that shakes the foundations of all things? I can't tell.But on that day, the sunset in his eyes slew the dragon in me, and I became a woman again, Miriam, Miriam of Magdalene.