Ahasverus in These Times

Image: The Wandering Jew by Eugène Sue

For a long time now, Ahasverus

Ahasverus is the figure widely spread in the Christian Middle Ages of a man from Jerusalem who does not let the Savior rest on his way to Golgotha and is subsequently condemned by Him to eternal wandering.

Has become a fictional character,
And according to Christian doctrine,
Ahasverus is rather sour.

He is treated somewhat poorly,
After all, he is condemned,
And because he wanders,
He is called the „Wandering Jew.“

Ahasverus must stray
Throughout all eternity,
Through countless stories,
However he is sorry for it.

Ahasverus must travel,
Even though he longs for rest,
He must traverse the world,
For he never finds peace.

He stumbles through time
And finds no homeland,
His path is full of suffering
And full of misunderstanding.

And yet he is no worse
Than any other human,
Who appoints himself judge,
Full of boundless arrogance.

He stumbles through the lands,
He stumbles through time,
Because they banned him,
Full of complacency,

He walked his paths
Around the whole world,
And he didn’t find rest,
And didn’t find solid ground.

Hence for the Jews,
Wandering was prohibited,
By Hitler, forbidden,
This last Jewish right.

For if a Jew were to walk now,
He would be arrested,
And there would be no more hope,
No, he would be extinguished.
Thus, he gave up
His age-old tradition,
And sits for a few years now,
Even though he doesn’t find it great.

To be locked away
And removed from the world,
He flees from the despots,
And from their murderous decree.

Today, he spends his days
Quiet, without fantasy,
Quite differently from how Hugo
And Eugène Sue saw him.

Although it‘s not his nature,
There he sits and hides,
For Ahasverus, you get
A seated Jew in exchange.