


LAZARUS

By LEONID ANDREYEV


Translated by 
ABRAHAM YARMOLINSKY 

BOSTON

The Stratford Company, Publishers
1918 



About the print version 
Lazarus by Leonid Andreyev 
Translator Abraham Yarmolinsky 
The Stratford Company 
Boston 
1918 
Note: This work appeared in a Stratford Universal Library edition containing two 
works: this one and The Gentleman from San Francisco by Ivan Bunin. Both works 
translated by Abraham Yarmolinsky. 
Published: 1918 






Foreword
Lazarus and The Gentleman from San Francisco, while fairly typical of Slavic 
literature, nevertheless contain few of the elements popularly associated with 
the work of contemporary Russian writers. They have no sex interest, no 
photographic descriptions of sordid conditions and no lugubrious philosophizing. 
These stories are not cheerful, yet their sadness is uplifting rather than 
depressing. They both contain what the Greek called katharsis in their 
tragedies, -- that cleansing atmosphere which purges us of every baser feeling 
as we read them. 
In Lazarus Andreyev has come as near as it is humanly possible to achieving 
the impossible. He has made concretely vivid an abstraction; he has arrested for 
an instant the ceaseless, unmeasurable flood of eternity; he has enclosed in a 
small frame the boundless void of the infinite. That which no human faculty can 
understand Andreyev has made almost intelligible. For a terrible moment he 
unveils the the secrets of the grave, and together with Augustus and the others 
who have come under the spell of Lazarus' eyes, we see how the most enduring of 
human monuments crumble into chaos even at the instant when they are being 
built, how nations upon nations tower like the shadows of silent ghosts, rising 
out of nothingness and sinking instantaneously into nothingness again, "for Time 
was no more, and the beginning of all things came near their end: the building 
was still being built, and the builders were still hammering away, and its ruins 
were already seen and the void in its place; the man was still being born, but 
already funeral candles were burning at his head, and now they were extinguished 
and there was the void in place of the man and of the funeral candles. And 
wrapped by void and darkness the man in despair trembled in the face of the 
Horror of the Infinite." 

Lazarus is a story which depicts the misery of knowing the Unknowable. 
In The Gentleman from San Francisco -- Ivan Bunin demonstrates the poverty 
of wealth and the impotence of power. This story has been called the best work 
of fiction produced in Russia during the last decade. 
The petty seriousness of the life of the modern Babylon, the deference paid 
by all people to bald heads and patent leather shoes and well-filled pockets, 
and the utter disregard for human feelings, are pictured with the pen of one who 
pities rather than scorns the frailties of the earth. The author stands aside, 
letting the world rush by like a hurdy gurdy, each gentleman from San Francisco 
or Boston or Berlin or Hong Kong sitting on his hobby horse, while the head 
waiter Luigi clownishly mocks their antics and nudges Death in the ribs. 
The Gentleman from San Francisco shows the wide gulf that yawns between our 
estimate of our own worth and our actual worth. "I need the whole wide world for 
my amusement!" cries the man of wealth. "Yes, and here it is," answered Death, 
handing him a coffin. And as a further humiliation, those who were most anxious 
to serve this man of wealth in life are the first to shove the coffin into the 
ground. 
The two stories in this book will arouse thought. They will be severely 
criticized by those who hate thought and as an excuse for their superficial 
shallowness condemn all Russian literature, for Russian literature is nothing if 
not thought-provoking. I do hope, however, that nobody will be found quite so 
devoid of a sense of humor as an admirable college dean and a sweet old lady the 
former of whom wrote to me that Chekhov's Nine Humorous Tales was immoral, and 
the latter of whom insisted that Lazarus was ungodly, inasmuch as Christ would 
never have raised a man from the dead for the purpose of teaching us so sad a 
lesson about the grave.

H. T. S.



C O N T E N T S


Foreword 

Lazarus 

The Gentleman from San Francisco 





Lazarus 

BY LEONID ANDREYEV 

TRANSLATED BY ABRAHAM YARMOLINSKY 

Chapter 1
I
   WHEN Lazarus left the grave, where, for three days and three nights he had 
been under the enigmatical sway of death, and returned alive to his dwelling, 
for a long time no one noticed in him those sinister oddities, which, as time 
went on, made his very name a terror. Gladdened unspeakably by the sight of him 
who had been returned to life, those near to him carressed / him unceasingly, 
and satiated their burning desire to serve him, in solicitude for his food and 
drink and garments. And they dressed him gorgeously, in bright colors of hope 
and laughter, and when, like to a bridegroom in his bridal vestures, he sat 
again among them at the table, and again ate and drank, they wept, overwhelmed 
with tenderness. And they summoned the neighbors to look at him who had risen 
miraculously from the dead. These came and shared the serene joy of the hosts. 
Strangers from far-off towns and hamlets came and adored the miracle in 
tempestuous words. Like to a beehive was the house of Mary and Martha. 
Whatever was found new in Lazarus' face and gestures was thought to be some 
trace of a grave illness and of the shocks recently experienced. Evidently, the 
destruction wrought by death on the corpse was only arrested by the miraculous 
power, but its effects were still apparent; and what death had succeeded in 
doing with Lazarus' face and body, was like an artist's unfinished sketch seen 
under thin glass. On Lazarus' temples, under his eyes, and in the hollows of his 
cheeks, lay a deep and cadaverous blueness; cadaverously blue also were his long 
fingers, and around his fingernails, grown long in the grave, the blue had 
become purple and dark. On his lips the skin, swollen in the grave, had burst in 
places, and thin, reddish cracks were formed, shining as though covered with 
transparent mica. And he had grown stout. His body, puffed up in the grave, 
retained its monstrous size and showed those frightful swellings, in which one 
sensed the presence of the rank liquid of decomposition. But the heavy 
corpse-like odor which penetrated Lazarus' graveclothes and, it seemed, his very 
body, soon entirely disappeared, the blue spots on his face and hands grew 
paler, and the reddish cracks closed up, although they never disappeared 
altogether. That is how Lazarus looked when he appeared before people, in his 
second life, but his face looked natural to those who had seen him in the 
coffin. 
In addition to the changes in his appearance, Lazarus' temper seemed to have 
undergone a transformation, but this circumstance startled no one and attracted 
no attention. Before his death Lazarus had always been cheerful and carefree, 
fond of laughter and a merry joke. It was because of this brightness and 
cheerfulness, with not a touch of malice and darkness, that the Master had grown 
so fond of him. But now Lazarus had grown grave and taciturn, he never jested, 
himself, nor responded with laughter to other people's jokes; and the words 
which he uttered, very infrequently, were the plainest, most ordinary and 
necessary words, as deprived of depth and significance, as those sounds with 
which animals express pain and pleasure, thirst and hunger. They were the words 
that one can say all one's life, and yet they give no indication of what pains 
and gladdens the depths of the soul. 
Thus, with the face of a corpse which for three days had been under the 
heavy sway of death, dark and taciturn, already appallingly transformed, but 
still unrecognized by any one in his new self, he was sitting at the feasting 
table, among friends and relatives, and his gorgeous nuptial garments glittered 
with yellow gold and bloody scarlet. Broad waves of jubilation, now soft, now tempestuously-sonorous surged around him; warm glances of love were 
reaching out for his face, still cold with the coldness of the grave; and a 
friend's warm palm caressed his blue, heavy hand. And music played: the tympanum 
and the pipe, the cithara and the harp. It was as though bees hummed, 
grasshoppers chirped and birds warbled over the happy house of Mary and Martha.

Chapter 2
II
One of the guests uncautiously lifted the veil. By a thoughtless word he 
broke the serene charm and uncovered the truth in all its naked ugliness. Ere 
the thought formed itself in his mind, his lips uttered with a smile: 
"Why dost thou not tell us what happened yonder?" 
And all grew silent, startled by the question. It was as if it occurred to 
them only now that for three days Lazarus had been dead, and they looked at him, 
anxiously awaiting his answer. But Lazarus kept silence. 
"Thou dost not wish to tell us," -- wondered the man, "is it so terrible 
yonder?" 
And again his thought came after his words. Had it been otherwise, he would 
not have asked this question, which at that very moment oppressed his heart with 
its insufferable horror. Uneasiness seized all present, and with a feeling of 
heavy weariness they awaited Lazarus' words, but he was silent, sternly and 
coldly, and his eyes were lowered. And as if for the first time, they noticed 
the frightful blueness of his face and his repulsive obesity. On the table, as 
though forgotten by Lazarus, rested his bluish-purple wrist, and to this all 
eyes turned, as if it were from it that the awaited answer was to come. The 
musicians were still playing, but now the silence reached them too, and even as 
water extinguishes scattered embers, so were their merry tunes extinguished in 
the silence. The pipe grew silent; the voices of the sonorous tympanum and the murmuring harp died away; and as if the 
strings had burst, the cithara answered with a tremulous, broken note. Silence. 
"Thou dost not wish to say?" repeated the guest, unable to check his 
chattering tongue. But the stillness remained unbroken, and the bluish-purple 
hand rested motionless. And then he stirred slightly and everyone felt relieved. 
He lifted up his eyes, and, lo! straightway embracing everything in one heavy 
glance, fraught with weariness and horror, he looked at them, -- Lazarus who had 
arisen from the dead. 
It was the third day since Lazarus had left the grave. Ever since then many 
had experienced the pernicious power of his eye, but neither those who were 
crushed by it forever, nor those who found the strength to resist in it the 
primordial sources of life, -- which is as mysterious as death, -- never could 
they explain the horror which lay motionless in the depth of his black pupils. 
Lazarus looked calmly and simply with no desire to conceal anything, but also 
with no intention to say anything; he looked coldly, as he who is infinitely 
indifferent to those alive. Many carefree people came close to him without 
noticing him, and only later did they learn with astonishment and fear who that 
calm stout man was, that walked slowly by, almost touching them with his 
gorgeous and dazzling garments. The sun did not cease shining, when he was 
looking, nor did the fountain hush its murmur, and the sky overhead remained 
cloudless and blue. But the man under the spell of his enigmatical look heard no 
more the fountain and saw not the sky overhead. Sometimes, he wept bitterly, 
sometimes he tore his hair and in frenzy called for help; but more often it came 
to pass that apathetically and quietly he began to die, and so he languished 
many years, before everybody's very eyes, wasted away, colorless, flabby, dull, 
like a tree, silently drying up in a stony soil. And of those who gazed at him, 
the ones who wept madly, sometimes felt again the stir of life; the others 
never. 




"So thou dost not wish to tell us what thou hast seen yonder?" repeated the 
man. But now his voice was impassive and dull, and deadly gray weariness showed 
in Lazarus' eyes. And deadly, gray weariness covered like dust all the faces, 
and with dull amazement the guests stared at each other and did not understand 
wherefore they had gathered here and sat at the rich table. The talk ceased. 
They thought it was time to go home, but could not overcome the flaccid lazy 
weariness, which glued their muscles, and they kept on sitting there, yet apart 
and torn away from each other, like pale fires scattered over a dark field. 
But the musicians were paid to play and again they took to their 
instruments, and again tunes full of studied mirth and studied sorrow began to 
flow and to rise. They unfolded the customary melody, but the guests hearkened 
in dull amazement. Already they knew not wherefore is it necessary, and why is 
it well, that people should pluck strings, inflate their cheeks, blow in thin 
pipes and produce a bizarre, many-voiced noise. 
"What bad music," -- said someone. 
The musicians took offense and left. Following them, the guests left one 
after another, for night was already come. And when placid darkness encircled 
them and they began to breathe with more ease, suddenly Lazarus' image loomed up 
before each one in formidable radiance: the blue face of a corpse, graveclothes 
gorgeous and resplendent, a cold look, in the depths of which lay motionless an 
unknown horror. As though petrified, they were standing far apart, and darkness 
enveloped them, but in the darkness blazed brighter and brighter the 
super-natural vision of him who for three days had been under the enigmatical 
sway of death. For three days had he been dead: thrice had the sun risen and 
set, but he had been dead; children had played, streams murmured over pebbles, 
the wayfarer had lifted up hot dust in the highroad, -- but he had been dead. 
And now he is again among them, -- touches them, -- looks at them, -- looks at 
them! and through the black discs of his pupils, as through darkened glass, 
stares the unknowable Yonder. 




Chapter 3
III
No one was taking care of Lazarus, for no friends, no relatives were left to 
him, and the great desert, which encircled the holy city, came near the very 
threshold of his dwelling. And the desert entered his house, and stretched on 
his couch, like a wife, and extinguished the fires. No one was taking care of 
Lazarus. One after the other, his sisters -- Mary and Martha -- forsook him. For 
a long while Martha was loath to abandon him, for she knew not who would feed 
him and pity him, she wept and prayed. But one night, when the wind was roaming 
in the desert and with a hissing sound the cypresses were bending over the roof, 
she dressed noiselessly and secretly left the house. Lazarus probably heard the 
door slam; it banged against the side-post under the gusts of the desert wind, 
but he did not rise to go out and to look at her that was abandoning him. All 
the night long the cypresses hissed over his head and plaintively thumped the 
door, letting in the cold, greedy desert. 
Like a leper he was shunned by everyone, and it was proposed to tie a bell 
to his neck, as is done with lepers, to warn people against sudden meetings. But 
someone remarked, growing frightfully pale, that it would be too horrible if by 
night the moaning of Lazarus' bell were suddenly heard under the windows, -- and 
so the project was abandoned. 
And since he did not take care of himself, he would probably have starved to 
death, had not the neighbors brought him food in fear of something that they 
sensed but vaguely. The food was brought to him by children; they were not 
afraid of Lazarus, nor did they mock him with naive cruelty, as children are 
wont to do with the wretched and miserable. They were indifferent to him, and 
Lazarus answered them with the same coldness: he had no desire to caress the 
black little curls, and to look into their innocent shining eyes. Given to Time 
and to the Desert, his house was crumbling down, and long since had his 
famishing lowing goats wandered away to the neighboring pastures. And his bridal garments 
became threadbare. Ever since that happy day, when the musicians played, he had 
worn them unaware of the difference of the new and the worn. The bright colors 
grew dull and faded; vicious dogs and the sharp thorn of the Desert turned the 
tender fabric into rags. 
By day, when the merciless sun slew all things alive, and even scorpions 
sought shelter under stones and writhed there in a mad desire to sting, he sat 
motionless under the sunrays, his blue face and the uncouth, bushy beard lifted 
up, bathing in the fiery flood. 
When people still talked to him, he was once asked: 
"Poor Lazarus, does it please thee to sit thus and to stare at the sun?" 
And he had answered: 
"Yes, it does." 
So strong, it seemed, was the cold of his three-days' grave, so deep the 
darkness, that there was no heat on earth to warm Lazarus, nor a splendor that 
could brighten the darkness of his eyes. That is what came to the mind of those 
who spoke to Lazarus, and with a sigh they left him. 
And when the scarlet, flattened globe would lower, Lazarus would set out for 
the desert and walk straight toward the sun, as though striving to reach it. He 
always walked straight toward the sun and those who tried to follow him and to 
spy upon what he was doing at night in the desert, retained in their memory the 
black silhouette of a tall stout man against the red background of an enormous 
flattened disc. Night pursued them with her horrors, and so they did not learn 
of Lazarus' doings in the desert, but the vision of the black on red was forever 
branded on their brain. Just as a beast with a splinter in its eye furiously 
rubs its muzzle with its paws, so they too foolishly rubbed their eyes, but what 
Lazarus had given was indelible, and Death alone could efface it. 




But there were people who lived far away, who never saw Lazarus and knew of 
him only by report. With daring curiosity, which is stronger than fear and feeds 
upon it, with hidden mockery, they would come to Lazarus who was sitting in the 
sun and enter into conversation with him. By this time Lazarus' appearance had 
changed for the better and was not so terrible. The first minute they snapped 
their fingers and thought of how stupid the inhabitants of the holy city were; 
but when the short talk was over and they started homeward, their looks were 
such that the inhabitants of the holy city recognized them at once and said: 
"Look, there is one more fool on whom Lazarus has set his eye," -- and they 
shook their heads regretfully, and lifted up their arms. 
There came brave, intrepid warriors, with tinkling weapons; happy youths 
came with laughter and song; busy tradesmen, jingling their money, ran in for a 
moment, and haughty priests leaned their crosiers against Lazarus' door, and 
they were all strangely changed, as they came back. The same terrible shadow 
swooped down upon their souls and gave a new appearance to the old familiar 
world. 
Those who still had the desire to speak, expressed their feelings thus: 
"All things tangible and visible grew hollow, light and transparent, -- 
similar to lightsome shadows in the darkness of night; 
"for, that great darkness, which holds the whole cosmos, was dispersed 
neither by the sun nor by the moon and the stars, but like an immense black 
shroud enveloped the earth and, like a mother, embraced it; 
"it penetrated all the bodies, iron and stone, -- and the particles of the 
bodies, having lost their ties, grew lonely; and it penetrated into the depth of 
the particles, and the particles of particles became lonely; "for that great void, which encircles the cosmos, was not filled by things 
visible: neither by the sun, nor by the moon and the stars, but reigned 
unrestrained, penetrating everywhere, severing body from body, particle from 
particle; 
"in the void hollow trees spread hollow roots, threatening a fantastic fall; 
temples, palaces and horses loomed up, and they were hollow; and in the void men 
moved about restlessly, but they were light and hollow like shadows; 
"for, Time was no more, and the beginning of all things came near their end: 
the building was still being built, and builders were still hammering away, and 
its ruins were already seen and the void in its place; the man was still being 
born, but already funeral candles were burning at his head, and now they were 
extinguished, and there was the void in place of the man and of the funeral 
candles. 
"and wrapped by void and darkness the man in despair trembled in the face of 
the Horror of the Infinite.'' 
Thus spake the men who had still a desire to speak. But, surely, much more 
could have told those who wished not to speak, and died in silence.


Chapter 4
IV
At that time there lived in Rome a renowned sculptor. In clay, marble and 
bronze he wrought bodies of gods and men, and such was their beauty, that people 
called them immortal. But he himself was discontented and asserted that there 
was something even more beautiful, that he could not embody either in marble or 
in bronze. "I have not yet gathered the glimmers of the moon, nor have I my fill 
of sunshine," he was wont to say, "and there is no soul in my marble, no life in 
my beautiful bronze." And when on moonlight nights he slowly walked along the 
road, crossing the black shadows of cypresses, his white tunic glittering in the 
moonshine, those who met him would laugh in a friendly way and say: 

"Art thou going to gather moonshine, Aurelius? Why then didst thou not fetch 
baskets?" 
And he would answer, laughing and pointing to his eyes: 
"Here are the baskets wherein I gather the sheen of the moon and the glimmer 
of the sun." 
And so it was: the moon glimmered in his eyes and the sun sparkled therein. 
But he could not translate them into marble and therein lay the serene tragedy 
of his life. 
He was descended from an ancient patrician race, had a good wife and 
children, and suffered from no want. 
When the obscure rumor about Lazarus reached him, he consulted his wife and 
friends and undertook the far journey to Judea to see him who had miraculously 
risen from the dead. He was somewhat weary in those days and he hoped that the 
road would sharpen his blunted senses. What was said of Lazarus did not frighten 
him: he had pondered much over Death, did not like it, but he disliked also 
those who confused it with life.


"In this life, -- life and beauty; 
beyond, -- Death, the enigmatical" -- 

   thought he, and there is no better thing for a man to do than to delight in 
life and in the beauty of all things living. He had even a vain glorious desire 
to convince Lazarus of the truth of his own view and restore his soul to life, 
as his body had been restored. This seemed so much easier because the rumors, 
shy and strange, did not render the whole truth about Lazarus and but vaguely 
warned against something frightful. 
Lazarus had just risen from the stone in order to follow the sun which was 
setting in the desert, when a rich Roman attended by an armed slave, approached 
him and addressed him in a sonorous tone of voice: 
"Lazarus!" 
And Lazarus beheld a superb face, lit with glory, and arrayed in fine 
clothes, and precious stones sparkling in the sun. 

The red light lent to the Roman's face and head the appearance of gleaming 
bronze -- that also Lazarus noticed. He resumed obediently his place and lowered 
his weary eyes. 
"Yes, thou art ugly, my poor Lazarus," -- quietly said the Roman, playing 
with his golden chain; "thou art even horrible, my poor friend; and Death was 
not lazy that day when thou didst fall so heedlessly into his hands. But thou 
art stout, and, as the great Caesar used to say, fat people are not 
ill-tempered; to tell the truth, I don't understand why men fear thee. Permit me 
to spend the night in thy house; the hour is late, and I have no shelter." 
Never had anyone asked Lazarus' hospitality. 
"I have no bed," said he. 
"I am somewhat of a soldier and I can sleep sitting," the Roman answered. 
"We shall build a fire." 
"I have no fire." 
"Then we shall have our talk in the darkness, like two friends. I think, 
thou wilt find a bottle of wine." 
"I have no wine." 
The Roman laughed. 
"Now I see why thou art so somber and dislikest thy second life. No wine! 
Why, then we shall do without it: there are words that make the head go round 
better than the Falernian." 
By a sign he dismissed the slave, and they remained all alone. And again the 
sculptor started speaking, but it was as if, together with the setting sun, life 
had left his words; and they grew pale and hollow, as if they staggered on 
unsteady feet, as if they slipped and fell down, drunk with the heavy lees of 
weariness and despair. And black chasms grew up between the words -- like 
far-off hints of the great void and the great darkness. 
"Now I am thy guest, and thou wilt not be unkind to me, Lazarus!" -- said 
he. "Hospitality is the duty even of those who for three days were dead. Three 
days, I was told, thou didst rest in the grave. There it must be cold . . . and that is whence comes thy ill habit 
of going without fire and wine. As to me, I like fire; it grows dark here so 
rapidly. . . . The lines of thy eyebrows and forehead are quite, quite 
interesting: they are like ruins of strange palaces, buried in ashes after an 
earthquake. But why dost thou wear such ugly and queer garments? I have seen 
bridegrooms in thy country, and they wear such clothes -- are they not funny -- 
and terrible. . . . But art thou a bridegroom?" 
The sun had already disappeared, a monstrous black shadow came running from 
the east -- it was as if gigantic bare feet began rumbling on the sand, and the 
wind sent a cold wave along the backbone. 
"In the darkness thou seemest still larger, Lazarus, as if thou hast grown 
stouter in these moments. Dost thou feed on darkness, Lazarus? I would fain have 
a little fire -- at least a little fire, a little fire. I feel somewhat chilly, 
your nights are so barbarously cold. . . . Were it not so dark, I should say 
that thou wert looking at me, Lazarus. Yes, it seems to me, thou art looking. . 
. . Why, thou art looking at me, I feel it, -- but there thou art smiling." 
Night came, and filled the air with heavy blackness. 
"How well it will be, when the sun will rise to-morrow anew. . . . I am a 
great sculptor, thou knowest; that is how my friends call me. I create. Yes, 
that is the word . . . but I need daylight. I give life to the cold marble, I 
melt sonorous bronze in fire, in bright hot fire. . . . Why didst thou touch me 
with thy hand?" 
"Come" -- said Lazarus -- "Thou art my guest." 
And they went to the house. And a long night enveloped the earth. 
The slave, seeing that his master did not come, went to seek him, when the 
sun was already high in the sky. And he beheld his master side by side with 
Lazarus: in profound silence were they sitting right under the dazzling and scorching sunrays and looking upward. 
The slave began to weep and cried out: 
"My master, what has befallen thee, master?" 
The very same day the sculptor left for Rome. On the way Aurelius was 
pensive and taciturn, staring attentively at everything -- the men, the ship, 
the sea, as though trying to retain something. On the high sea a storm burst 
upon them, and all through it Aurelius stayed on the deck and eagerly scanned 
the seas looming near and sinking with a thud. 
At home his friends were frightened at the change which had taken place in 
Aurelius, but he calmed them, saying meaningly: 
"I have found it." 
And without changing the dusty clothes he wore on his journey, he fell to 
work, and the marble obediently resounded under his sonorous hammer. Long and 
eagerly worked he, admitting no one, until one morning he announced that the 
work was ready and ordered his friends to be summoned, severe critics and 
connoisseurs of art. And to meet them he put on bright and gorgeous garments, 
that glittered with yellow gold -- and -- scarlet byssus. 
"Here is my work," said he thoughtfully. 
His friends glanced and a shadow of profound sorrow covered their faces. It 
was something monstrous, deprived of all the lines and shapes familiar to the 
eye, but not without a hint at some new, strange image. 
On a thin, crooked twig, or rather on an ugly likeness of a twig rested 
askew a blind, ugly, shapeless, outspread mass of something utterly and 
inconceivably distorted, a mad heap of wild and bizarre fragments, all feebly 
and vainly striving to part from one another. And, as if by chance, beneath one 
of the wildly-rent salients a butterfly was chiseled with divine skill, all airy 
loveliness, delicacy and beauty, with transparent wings, which seemed to tremble 
with an impotent desire to take flight. 




"Wherefore this wonderful butterfly, Aurelius?" said somebody falteringly. 
"I know not" -- was the sculptor's answer. 
But it was necessary to tell the truth, and one of his friends who loved him 
best said firmly: 
"This is ugly, my poor friend. It must be destroyed. Give me the hammer." 
And with two strokes he broke the monstrous man into pieces, leaving only 
the infinitely delicate butterfly untouched. 
From that time on Aurelius created nothing. With profound indifference he 
looked at marble and bronze, and on his former divine works, where everlasting 
beauty rested. With the purpose of arousing his former fervent passion for work 
and awakening his deadened soul, his friends took him to see other artists' 
beautiful works, -- but he remained indifferent as before, and the smile did not 
warm up his tightened lips. And only after listening to lengthy talks about 
beauty, he would retort wearily and indolently: 
"But all this is a lie." 
And by the day, when the sun was shining, he went into his magnificent, 
skillfully-built garden and having found a place without shadow, he exposed his 
bare head to the glare and heat. Red and white butterflies fluttered around; 
from the crooked lips of a drunken satyr, water streamed down with a splash into 
a marble cistern, but he sat motionless and silent, -- like a pallid reflection 
of him who, in the far-off distance, at the very gates of the stony desert, sat 
under the fiery sun.


Chapter 5
V
And now it came to pass that the great, deified Augustus himself summoned 
Lazarus. The imperial messengers dressed him gorgeously, in solemn nuptial 
clothes, as if Time had legalized them, and he was to remain until his very 
death the bridegroom of an unknown bride. It was as though an old, rotting coffin had been 
gilt and furnished with new, gay tassels. And men, all in trim and bright 
attire, rode after him, as if in bridal procession indeed, and those foremost 
trumpeted loudly, bidding people to clear the way for the emperor's messengers. 
But Lazarus' way was deserted: his native land cursed the hateful name of him 
who had miraculously risen from the dead, and people scattered at the very news 
of his appalling approach. The solitary voice of the brass trumpets sounded in 
the motionless air, and the wilderness alone responded with its languid echo. 
Then Lazarus went by sea. And his was the most magnificently arrayed and the 
most mournful ship that ever mirrored itself in the azure waves of the 
Mediterranean Sea. Many were the travelers aboard, but like a tomb was the ship, 
all silence and stillness, and the despairing water sobbed at the steep, proudly 
curved prow. All alone sat Lazarus exposing his head to the blaze of the sun, 
silently listening to the murmur and splash of the wavelets, and afar seamen and 
messengers were sitting, a vague group of weary shadows. Had the thunder burst 
and the wind attacked the red sails, the ships would probably have perished, for 
none of those aboard had either the will or the strength to struggle for life. 
With a supreme effort some mariners would reach the board and eagerly scan the 
blue, transparent deep, hoping to see a naiad's pink shoulder flash in the 
hollow of an azure wave, or a drunken gay centaur dash along and in frenzy 
splash the wave with his hoof. But the sea was like a wilderness, and the deep 
was dumb and deserted. 
With utter indifference did Lazarus set his feet on the street of the 
eternal city. As though all her wealth, all the magnificence of her palaces 
built by giants, all the resplendence, beauty and music of her refined life were 
but the echo of the wind in the wilderness, the reflection of the desert quicksand. Chariots were dashing, and along the streets were moving crowds of 
strong, fair, proud builders of the eternal city and haughty participants in her 
life; a song sounded; fountains and women laughed a pearly laughter; drunken 
philosophers harangued, and the sober listened to them with a smile; hoofs 
struck the stone pavements. And surrounded by cheerful noise, a stout, heavy man 
was moving, a cold spot of silence and despair, and on his way he sowed disgust, 
anger, and vague, gnawing weariness. Who dares to be sad in Rome, wondered 
indignantly the citizens, and frowned. In two days the entire city already knew 
all about him who had miraculously risen from the dead, and shunned him shyly. 
But some daring people there were, who wanted to test their strength, and 
Lazarus obeyed their imprudent summons. Kept busy by state affairs, the emperor 
constantly delayed the reception, and seven days did he who had risen from the 
dead go about visiting others. 
And Lazarus came to a cheerful Epicurean, and the host met him with laughter 
on his lips: 
"Drink, Lazarus, drink!" -- shouted he. "Would not Augustus laugh to see 
thee drunk!" 
And half-naked drunken women laughed, and rose petals fell on Lazarus' blue 
hands. But then the Epicurean looked into Lazarus' eyes, and his gaiety ended 
forever. Drunkard remained he for the rest of his life; never did he drink, yet 
forever was he drunk. But instead of the gay revery which wine brings with it, 
frightful dreams began to haunt him, the sole food of his stricken spirit. Day 
and night he lived in the poisonous vapors of his nightmares, and death itself 
was not more frightful than her raving, monstrous forerunners. 
And Lazarus came to a youth and his beloved, who loved each other and were 
most beautiful in their passion. Proudly and strongly embracing his love, the 
youth said with serene regret: "Look at us, Lazarus, and share our joy. Is there anything stronger than 
love?" 
And Lazarus looked. And for the rest of their life they kept on loving each 
other, but their passion grew gloomy and joyless, like those funeral cypresses 
whose roots feed on the decay of the graves and whose black summits in a still 
evening hour seek in vain to reach the sky. Thrown by the unknown forces of life 
into each other's embraces, they mingled tears with kisses, voluptuous pleasures 
with pain, and they felt themselves doubly slaves, obedient slaves to life, and 
patient servants of the silent Nothingness. Ever united, ever severed, they 
blazed like sparks and like sparks lost themselves in the boundless Dark. 
And Lazarus came to a haughty sage, and the sage said to him: 
"I know all the horrors thou canst reveal to me. Is there anything thou 
canst frighten me with?" 
But before long the sage felt that the knowledge of horror was far from 
being the horror itself, and that the vision of Death, was not Death. And he 
felt that wisdom and folly are equal before the face of Infinity, for Infinity 
knows them not. And it vanished, the dividing-line between knowledge and 
ignorance, truth and falsehood, top and bottom, and the shapeless thought hung 
suspended in the void. Then the sage clutched his gray head and cried out 
frantically: 
"I cannot think! I cannot think!" 
Thus under the indifferent glance for him, who miraculously had risen from 
the dead, perished everything that asserts life, its significance and joys. And 
it was suggested that it was dangerous to let him see the emperor, that it was 
better to kill him and, having buried him secretly, to tell the emperor that he 
had disappeared no one knew whither. Already swords were being whetted and 
youths devoted to the public welfare prepared for the murder, when Augustus ordered Lazarus to be brought before him next morning, thus destroying the cruel 
plans. 
If there was no way of getting rid of Lazarus, at least it was possible to 
soften the terrible impression his face produced. With this in view, skillful 
painters, barbers and artists were summoned, and all night long they were busy 
over Lazarus' head. They cropped his beard, curled it and gave it a tidy, 
agreeable appearance. By means of paints they concealed the corpse-like blueness 
of his hands and face. Repulsive were the wrinkles of suffering that furrowed 
his old face, and they were puttied, painted and smoothed; then, over the smooth 
background, wrinkles of good-tempered laughter and pleasant, carefree mirth were 
skillfully painted with fine brushes. 
Lazarus submitted indifferently to everything that was done to him. Soon he 
was turned into a becomingly stout, venerable old man, into a quiet and kind 
grandfather of numerous offspring. It seemed that the smile, with which only a 
while ago he was spinning funny yarns, was still lingering on his lips, and that 
in the corner of his eye serene tenderness was hiding, the companion of old age. 
But people did not dare change his nuptial garments, and they would not change 
his eyes, two dark and frightful glasses through which looked at men, the 
unknowable Yonder.


Chapter 6
VI
Lazarus was not moved by the magnificence of the imperial palace. It was as 
though he saw no difference between the crumbling house, closely pressed by the 
desert, and the stone palace, solid and fair, and indifferently he passed into 
it. And the hard marble of the floors under his feet grew similar to the 
quicksand of the desert, and the multitude of richly dressed and haughty men 
became like void air under his glance. No one looked into his face, as Lazarus passed by, fearing to fall under 
the appalling influence of his eyes; but when the sound of his heavy footsteps 
had sufficiently died down, the courtiers raised their heads and with fearful 
curiosity examined the figure of a stout, tall, slightly bent old man, who was 
slowly penetrating into the very heart of the imperial palace. Were Death itself 
passing, it would be faced with no greater fear: for until then the dead alone 
knew Death, and those alive knew Life only -- and there was no bridge between 
them. But this extraordinary man, although alive, knew Death, and enigmatical, 
appalling, was his cursed knowledge. "Woe," people thought, "he will take the 
life of our great, deified Augustus," and they sent curses after Lazarus, who 
meanwhile kept on advancing into the interior of the palace. 
Already did the emperor know who Lazarus was, and prepared to meet him. But 
the monarch was a brave man, and felt his own tremendous, unconquerable power, 
and in his fatal duel with him who had miraculously risen from the dead he 
wanted not to invoke human help. And so he met Lazarus face to face: 
"Lift not thine eyes upon me, Lazarus," he ordered. "I heard thy face is 
like that of Medusa and turns into stone whomsoever thou lookest at. Now, I wish 
to see thee and to have a talk with thee, before I turn into stone," -- added he 
in a tone of kingly jesting, not devoid of fear. 
Coming close to him, he carefully examined Lazarus' face and his strange 
festal garments. And although he had a keen eye, he was deceived by his 
appearance. 
"So. Thou dost not appear terrible, my venerable old man. But the worse for 
us, if horror assumes such a respectable and pleasant air. Now, let us have a 
talk." 
Augustus sat, and questioning Lazarus with his eye as much as with words, 
started the conversation: 




"Why didst thou not greet me as thou enteredst?" 
Lazarus answered indifferent: 
"I knew not it was necessary." 
"Art thou a Christian?" 
"No." 
Augustus approvingly shook his head. 
"That is good. I do not like Christians. They shake the tree of life before 
it is covered with fruit, and disperse its odorous bloom to the winds. But who 
art thou?" 
With a visible effort Lazarus answered: 
"I was dead." 
"I had heard that. But who art thou now?" 
Lazarus was silent, but at last repeated in a tone of weary apathy: 
"I was dead." 
"Listen to me, stranger," said the emperor, distinctly and severely giving 
utterance to the thought that had come to him at the beginning, "my realm is the 
realm of Life, my people are of the living, not of the dead. Thou art here one 
too many. I know not who thou art and what thou sawest there; but, if thou 
liest, I hate thy lies, and if thou tellst the truth, I hate thy truth. In my 
bosom I feel the throb of life; I feel strength in my arm, and my proud 
thoughts, like eagles, pierce the space. And yonder in the shelter of my rule, 
under the protection of laws created by me, people live and toil and rejoice. 
Dost thou hear the battle-cry, the challenge men throw into the face of the 
future?" 
Augustus, as in prayer, stretched forth his arms and exclaimed solemnly: 
"Be blessed, O great and divine Life!" 
Lazarus was silent, and with growing sternness the emperor went on: 
"Thou art not wanted here, miserable remnant, snatched from under Death's 
teeth, thou inspirest weariness and disgust with life; like a caterpillar in the fields, thou gloatest on the rich ear of 
joy and belchest out the drivel of despair and sorrow. Thy truth is like a rusty 
sword in the hands of a nightly murderer, -- and as a murderer thou shalt be 
executed. But before that, let me look into thine eyes. Perchance, only cowards 
are afraid of them, but in the brave they awake the thirst for strife and 
victory; then thou shalt be rewarded, not executed. . . . Now, look at me, 
Lazarus." 
At first it appeared to the deified Augustus that a friend was looking at 
him, -- so soft, so tenderly-fascinating was Lazarus' glance. It promised not 
horror, but sweet rest, and the Infinite seemed to him a tender mistress, a 
compassionate sister, a mother. But stronger and stronger grew its embraces, and 
already the mouth, greedy of hissing kisses, interfered with the monarch's 
breathing, and already to the surface of the soft tissues of the body came the 
iron of the bones and tightened its merciless circle, -- and unknown fangs, 
blunt and cold, touched his heart and sank into it with slow indolence. 
"It pains," said the deified Augustus, growing pale. "But look at me, 
Lazarus, look." 
It was as though some heavy gates, ever closed, were slowly moving apart, 
and through the growing interstice the appalling horror of the Infinite poured 
in slowly and steadily. Like two shadows there entered the shoreless void and 
the unfathomable darkness; they extinguished the sun, ravished the earth from 
under the feet, and the roof from over the head. No more did the frozen heart 
ache. 
"Look, look, Lazarus," ordered Augustus tottering. 
Time stood still, and the beginning of each thing grew frightfully near to 
its end. Augustus' throne just erected, crumbled down, and the void was already 
in the place of the throne and of Augustus. Noiselessly did Rome crumble down, 
and a new city stood on its site and it too was swallowed by the void. Like 
fantastic giants, cities, states and countries fell down and vanished in the 
void darkness -- and with uttermost indifference did the insatiable black womb of the Infinite swallow them. 
"Halt!" -- ordered the emperor. 
In his voice sounded already a note of indifference, his hands dropped in 
languor, and in the vain struggle with the onrushing darkness his fiery eyes now 
blazed up, and now went out. 
"My life thou hast taken from me, Lazarus," -- said he in a spiritless, 
feeble voice. 
And these words of hopelessness saved him. He remembered his people, whose 
shield he was destined to be, and keen salutary pain pierced his deadened heart. 
"They are doomed to death," he thought wearily, "Serene shadows in the darkness 
of the Infinite," thought he, and horror grew upon him. "Frail vessels with 
living seething blood, with a heart that knows sorrow and also great joy," said 
he in his heart, and tenderness pervaded it. 
Thus pondering and oscillating between the poles of Life and Death, he 
slowly came back to life, to find in its suffering and in its joys a shield 
against the darkness of the void and the horror of the Infinite. 
"No, thou hast not murdered me, Lazarus," said he firmly, "but I will take 
thy life. Be gone." 
That evening the deified Augustus partook of his meats and drinks with 
particular joy. Now and then his lifted hand remained suspended in the air, and 
a dull glimmer replaced the bright sheen of his fiery eye. It was the cold wave 
of Horror that surged at his feet. Defeated, but not undone, ever awaiting its 
hour, that Horror stood at the emperor's bedside, like a black shadow all 
through his life; it swayed his nights, but yielded the days to the sorrows and 
joys of life. 
The following day, the hangman with a hot iron burnt out Lazarus' eyes. Then 
he was sent home. The deified Augustus dared not kill him. 
* * * * * * 




Lazarus returned to the desert, and the wilderness met him with hissing 
gusts of wind and the heat of the blazing sun. Again he was sitting on a stone, 
his rough, bushy beard lifted up; and the two black holes in place of his eyes 
looked at the sky with an expression of dull terror. Afar-off the holy city 
stirred noisily and restlessly, but around him everything was deserted and dumb. 
No one approached the place where lived he who had miraculously risen from the 
dead, and long since his neighbors had forsaken their houses. Driven by the hot 
iron into the depth of his skull, his cursed knowledge hid there in an ambush. 
As though leaping out from an ambush it plunged its thousand invisible eyes into 
the man, -- and no one dared look at Lazarus. 
And in the evening, when the sun, reddening and growing wider, would come 
nearer and nearer the western horizon, the blind Lazarus would slowly follow it. 
He would stumble against stones and fall, stout and weak as he was; would rise 
heavily to his feet and walk on again; and on the red screen of the sunset his 
black body and outspread hands would form a monstrous likeness of a cross. 
And it came to pass that once he went out and did not come back. Thus 
seemingly ended the second life of him who for three days had been under the 
enigmatical sway of death, and rose miraculously from the dead.



