Apocrypha

I

The mission

‘My God, such a beautiful wench,’ 

Abraham exclaimed,

‘But why would she have me 

when I am so ugly?’

Uriel looked at him

as if seeing him for the first time.

‘Yes, truly.’

‘Truly, yes.’

The two sat on a stone 

at the side of the road, sipping drinks.

The archangel folded his wings

across his back.

‘Fine, then,’ Abraham said.

‘Great things are expected of me

and I don’t even have the basic means.’

Uriel raised a winged shoulder.

‘Let me sort out your fringe.’

It was getting dark.

The two stayed to wait for Sarah

on the road, wishing they knew

a little more clearly

why they’d been sent.

II

How King David wrote the Psalter

David wrote 356 Psalms,

steeped them in lead

and threw them into the sea.

‘If this scroll be true,’

he said, ‘let it emerge from the water.’

A whale ate it, fishermen

caught it, hauled out the scroll.

David remained unconvinced.

‘Water’s too easy,’ he said

and threw the Psalter into a crater

to see how it would come out.

The scroll fell on an eagle’s back

and again came back to the people.

‘Hmmm,’ said David. ‘I see

I’ll have to think of something else.’

‘David,’ said a voice from Heaven.

‘Don’t push it.’

III

Of the meeting between Jacob and Joseph

… and the father lamented:

‘Son, son,

to find you my eyes

abandoned me,

to reach you my legs

were worn away.’

And the son looked

at the clock and said:

…

(page torn here)

Translated by Tom Phillips

The original Bulgarian text was published in: ‘The Garden of Expectations and the Opposite Door’ (2012), Colibri Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria.