The earth is a stepmother, O Heavenly Mother, and as a stepmother she deals with us. As stepchildren she looks upon us, as strangers from afar; as adopted children — until she makes us her slaves.
We drudge for her day and night, and for it she pays us our wages out of her miserable goods: sin, sickness, and death. Whoever lives on her bread alone never knows fullness. Rather, the more he eats, the greater the hunger he feels. And the more he dances to her music, the greater the sorrow that seizes him.
Like a beast that falls into a deep pit, and digs the earth ever lower and deeper, that it might save itself. And moving farther from salvation, it thinks that salvation is near. Verily, such too are the sons of men, who labor much over the earth, and reckon the nearness of salvation by their labor.
To what end your diving into ashes, ever deeper and deeper? Sons of men, your salvation has been left behind your backs.
You say: just a little, a little deeper let us dig, and we shall come out into the light. But I say to you: a little deeper into the earth, and you will be farther from the light.
You say: only tomorrow and the day after, that we may finish some tasks, and the kingdom of good will be built. But I say to you: all your buildings of earth will crash down upon your heads, and your tomorrow and day after tomorrow will again be only a painful lifting of the head from beneath the ruins.
Your fathers spoke the same consolation to themselves, and died amid the ruins and amid unfinished repairs.
It is ladders you need, and nothing else but ladders. To climb out of the hole into which you have fallen. To flee from the cold embrace of the stepmother.
The Maiden is a ladder. She kindles a heavenly candle in your darkness, and shows the way. She is a seer, and knows what you have forgotten. At enmity with the earth, she is in friendship with heaven. Stripped bare of darkness, she is clothed in light. Through her Heaven gazes upon you. Through her you can see heaven.
She is wary of your counsels; uprightness is in her mind; heavenly wisdom in her womb; a sacred flame in her heart.
Out of her comes forth the physician and the medicine. From her loins arises the way-leader and the way.
She is not a stepmother but a mother, and she does not promise her son more than she can give. Her giving is her promise. While the stepmother's giving is in promises.
The earth is a stepmother, O Heavenly Mother, and as a stepmother she deals with us. With a black veil she has hidden You from our eyes, that we might not see You, and that we might think You dead. Therefore generation after generation presses close to the stepmother, and kisses her hard hand.
Shine forth, O Mother, with Your face, and the stepmother will flee, and the slaves will become sons.