Poe riprendeva sezioni del volume in cui Keith rievocava le tribolazioni vissute da
Irby, Burckhardt e dai vari esploratori che avevano come lui tentato di inoltrarsi
nel regno di Edom (o Idumea)
72incontrando la recisa opposizione degli abitanti
locali. Come gli infidi tsalaliani descritti nel Pym, questi ultimi, narra Keith, non
avevano esitato un solo istante a passare dalle minacce verbali ad un vero e
proprio assetto da guerra allorquando lo straniero si era accinto a profanare il loro
suolo; un siffatto scacco, proseguiva l’autore, pareva conformarsi in tutto ad un
antico veto divino scagliato sulla regione per bocca di Isaia ed Ezechiele. E’ Poe
stesso, nella Review degli Incidents of Travel, a segnalarci di quali profezie si
trattasse :
“From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever (…)There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay and hatch, and gather under her shadow; there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. Seek ye out of the Book of the Lord, and read; no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate; for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them. And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line; they shall possess it for ever and ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.” Isaiah : XXXIV. 5, 10-17. “Thus I will make Mount Seir most desolate, and cut off
from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.” Ezekiel: XXXV. 7
(Poe, Review di Stephens, cit., pp. 931-932)73
72 Edom, latino Idumea, ebraico
םוֹדֱא
, “rosso”; il toponimo deriva probabilmente dal colore concui si presenta il terreno di questa regione (cfr. Gen. 25, 30 : « Ed Esaù disse a Giacobbe : ‘Via, fammi buttar giù un po’ di codesta roba rossa, son tanto stanco’. Perciò fu chiamato Edom »).
73 Il brano è riportato nel testo di Keith alla p. 141 (cfr. anche l’intero cap. 5 dell’Evidence of the
truth of the Christian Religion, Edom or Idumea, alle pp. 135 e seguenti). Lo stesso veto si pone al
centro anche dell’indagine di Stephens : « Amid all the terrible denunciations against the land of Idumea, ‘her cities and the inhabitants thereof’, this proud city among the rocks, doubtless for its extraordinary sins, was always marked as a subject of extraordinary vengeance. ‘I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah (the strong or fortified city) shall become a desolation, a reproach, and a waste, and a curse, and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual waste. Lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men. Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thy heart, oh thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rocks, that boldest the height of the hill; though thou shouldst make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord’(Jeremaih xlix, 13, 15) » (Incidents of Travel, cit., p. 58). Verificheremo più avanti quale attenzione Poe avesse dedicato e al motivo profetico e alla traduzione che Keith e Stephens avevano fatto del testo biblico.
The travellers could not but compare their case to that of the Israelites under Moses, when Edom
refused to give them a passage through his country (…) “They offered even to abandon their
object rather than proceed to extremities,” and endanger the lives of many others, as well as their own; and they were told that they were fortunate in the protection of the chief who accompanied them, otherwise the never would have returned. The hostile Arabs, who defied them and their protectors to approach, having abandoned their camps, and having concentrated their forces, and possessed themselves of the passes and heights, sent messengers with a renewal of oaths and protestations against entering their territory; announced that they were fully prepared to maintain their purpose – that war “was positively determined on as the only alternative of the travellers’ not being permitted to see what they desired : “† and their sheikh vowed that “if they passed through his lands, they should be shot like so many dogs” (…) The camp assumed a very warlike appearance; the spears stuck in the sand, the saddled horses before the tents, with the arms hanging up within, altogether had an imposing effect. The travellers, however, were at last permitted to proceed in peace: but a brief space was allowed them for inspecting the ruins, and they could plainly distinguish the opposing party of Arabs, in great numbers, watching them from the heights (A. Keith, Evidence of the truth of the Christian Religion, p. 146)74
Se la nostra prima serie di somiglianze appare ben lungi dal configurarsi come
una semplice concomitanza di idee originata da un background di suggestioni o di
spunti narrativi comuni agli scrittori, nelle porzioni della Narrative correntemente
segnalate come zone intertestuali (cap. XXI-XXIV) vengono a disegnarsi altre e
più rilevanti intersezioni fra la riserva “Stephens-Keith” e il romanzo. Come
sottolineano Ridgley e Pollin
75, la fisionomia del regno di Edom offre anzitutto
all’artista un portentoso prototipo per dare vita alla raffigurazione dell’altro volto
74 Qui Keith cita « Capitains Irby and Mangles’s Travels » (Op. cit., p. 392). Si confronti l’estratto
con il seguente brano della Narrative, nel quale, in particolare, ci colpisce la notazione degli « stakes » conficcati nella terra : « The means by which the vast mass had been precipitated were not more simple than evident, for sure traces of the murderous work were yet remaining. In several spots along the top of the eastern side of the gorge (we were now on the western) might be seen stakes of wood driven into the earth. In these spots the earth had not given way, but throughout the whole extent of the face of the precipice from which the mass had fallen, it was clear, from marks left in the soil resembling those made by the drill of the rock-blaster, that stakes similar to those we saw standing had been inserted, at not more than a yard apart, for the length of perhaps three hundred feet, and ranging at about ten feet back from the edge of the gulf. Strong cords of grape vine were attached to the stakes still remaining on the hill, and it was evident that such cords had also been attached to each of the other stakes. I have already spoken of the singular stratification of these soapstone hills; and the description just given of the narrow and deep fissure through which we effected our escape from inhumation will afford a further conception of its nature. This was such that almost every natural convulsion would be sure to split the soil into perpendicular layers or ridges running parallel with one another; and a very moderate exertion of art would be sufficient for effecting the same purpose » (Pym, cap. XXI, pp. 150-151).