Free Only Yesterday by S. Y. Agnon

his old age, and in another bed Isaac slept with his brother Yudel; and in the other two beds his sisters slept. And never in his life had Isaac slept outside, unlike rich boys who are used to outings and sometimes happen to sleep outside.
    So Isaac lay and looked at the firmament. And since the stars that illuminate the sea are the same stars that illuminate the land, he looked at them and thought of his hometown, for it is the way of the stars to lead the thoughts of a person as they are wont. Isaac wondered and pondered, Now that I’m lying here, my brother Yudel is alone in Mother’s bed, for ever since Mother passed away, he and his brother had slept together in her bed. (And before Mother passed away, every night a place would be made for them, a kind of bed made of boards placed on chairs, two on each side.) Or maybe Yudel was joined by Vove, our little brother, so Father would have more room. What does Yudel put under his head, now that Father gave me the pillow that
    was on the bed? Yet we shall leave Yudel and Vove and think about other things. Now that I’m here, the people of my hometown won-der why they don’t see me, and maybe they ask about me and are amazed when they hear that I have gone to the Land of Israel. Some envy me and others are sorry I went, for as long as I was in the city I was busy selling Zionist Shekels and stamps of the Jewish National Fund, and now they’ve got to take care of selling them. I do hope the revenue won’t decline.
    And Isaac thought a great many other thoughts, and all his thoughts were about his hometown. The streetlamps have been lit by now and the city elders are sitting down to get a breath of fresh air, and girls are strolling between the marketplace and the post office, and students are escorting them, and maybe the girls are thinking about Isaac, because he went to the Land of Israel. Never in his life had Isaac paid any heed to girls. If his passion struck him, his heart carried him to the fields and vineyards of the Land of Israel. As he came to the Land of Israel, he saw a well in a field with flocks lying nearby, and a big stone lies on the mouth of the well, and it takes the strength of more than one or two men to roll it off. The village girls came there to water their flocks. And Isaac rolled the stone off the mouth of the well. They watered their flocks and returned to the village. The whole village was amazed, How did they manage to get back so fast today. And the girls said, We chanced upon a young man from Poland who rolled the stone off the mouth of the well, just as you pull a cork off the mouth of a flagon. And they said to the girls, Where is he, why did you leave him there? Call him and he shall dine with us. And they went out to call him and bring him with great honor, and a few days later he married one of them. Or perhaps this was how it was: Arabs were there and didn’t let the girls draw water from the well. Isaac chanced by there and drove out the Arabs, and the girls filled their ewers and told their fathers, A fellow from Poland saved us from the Arabs. And they said to the girls, Where is he , etc.
    But as he lay down alone on the big ship and the offspring of the sky looked graciously upon him and the waves of the sea rocked him, his heart swelled and he thought thoughts he wasn’t accustomed to. At last, he cleared away all those thoughts and started thinking about himself, how he had given his soul to Zionism and how people used to make fun of him, and now that he was ascending to the Land of Israel, it was he who was making fun of them, for what importance do they and their words have if they don’t lead them to action, and what was the difference between them and all the other denizens of the city, the former live out their days in Exile and the latter live out their days in Exile, neither of them want to move until the Messiah comes.
    After he thought about their deeds in general, he began detailing the deeds of every single one of