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much to do to leave Akbar as beautiful as my mother deserves. She
walks in its streets.
Come back to this place when you have need of me. And look toward
Jerusalem: I shall be there, seeking to give meaning to my name,
Liberation. Our hearts are linked forever.
Was that why you brought me to the top of the Fifth Mountain? So I
could see Israel?
So you could see the valley, the city, the other mountains, the rocks
and clouds. The Lord often has his prophets climb mountains to converse
with Him. I always wondered why He did that, and now I know the
answer: when we are on high, we can see everything else as small.
Our glory and our sadness lose their importance. Whatever we
conquered or lost remains there below. From the heights of the
mountain, you see how large the world is, and how wide its horizons.
The boy looked about him. From the top of the Fifth Mountain, he could
smell the sea that bathed the beaches of Tyre. And he could hear the
desert wind that blew from Egypt.
Someday I'll govern Akbar, he told Elijah. I know what's big. But I
also know every corner of the city. I know what needs to be changed.
Then change it. Don't let things remain idle.
Couldn't God have chosen a better way of showing us all this? There was
a time when I thought He was evil.
Elijah said nothing. He recalled a conversation, many years before, with
a Levite prophet while the two awaited death at the hands of Jezebel's
soldiers.
Can God be evil? the boy insisted.
God is all-powerful, answered Elijah. He can do anything, and nothing
is forbidden to Him, for if it were, there would exist someone more
powerful than He, to prevent His doing certain things. In that case, I
should prefer to worship and revere that more powerful someone.
He paused for several instants to allow the boy to fathom the meaning of
his words. Then he continued.
Still, because of His infinite power, He chose to do only Good. If we
reach the end of our story, we shall see that often Good is disguised as
Evil, but it goes on being the Good, and is part of the plan that He
created for humanity.
He took the boy by the hand, and together they descended the mountain
in silence.
THAT NIGHT, the boy went to sleep in his arms. As soon as day began to
break, Elijah carefully removed him from his bosom so he would not
awaken him.
He quickly donned the only garment he possessed and departed. On the
road, he picked up a piece of wood from the ground and used it as a
staff. He planned never to be without it: it was the remembrance of his
struggle with God, of the destruction and rebuilding of Akbar.
Without looking back, he continued toward Israel.
FIVE YEARS LATER, ASSYRIA AGAIN INVADED THE COUNTRY, this time
with a more professional army and more competent generals. All
Phoenicia fell under the domination of the foreign conqueror except Tyre
and Zarephath, which its inhabitants called Akbar.
The boy became a man, governed the city, and was judged a sage by his
contemporaries. He died in the fullness of his years, surrounded by loved
ones and saying always that it was necessary to keep the city beautiful
and strong, for his mother still strolled its streets. Because of their joint
system of defense, Tyre and Zarephath were not occupied by the
Assyrian king Sennacherib until 701 B.C., almost 160 years after the
events related in this book.
From that time on, Phoenician cities never recovered their importance
and began to suffer a series of invasion by the Neo-Babylonians, the
Persians, the Macedonians, the Seleucids, and, finally, by Rome. Even so,
they continue to exist in our own time because, according to ancient
tradition, the Lord never selected at random the places He wished to see
inhabited. Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos are still part of Lebanon, which even
today remains a battlefield.
ELIJAH RETURNED TO ISRAEL AND CALLED THE PROPHETS together at
Mount Carmel. There he asked them to divide into two groups: those who
worshiped Baal, and those who believed in the Lord. Following the angel's
instructions, he offered a bullock to the first group and asked them to call
out to the heavens for their gods to receive it. The Bible says:
And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry
aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a
journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.
And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives
and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.
And there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.
Then Elijah took his animal and offered it, following the angel's
instructions. At that moment the fire of heaven descended and consumed
the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones. Minutes later, a heavy
rain fell, ending four years of drought.
From that moment, civil war broke out. Elijah ordered the execution of
the prophets who had betrayed the Lord, and Jezebel sought him
everywhere, to kill him. He fled, however, to the eastern part of the Fifth
Mountain, which faced Israel.
The Syrians invaded the country and killed King Ahab, husband of the
princess of Tyre, with an accidentally shot arrow that entered an opening
in his armor. Jezebel took refuge in her palace and, following several
popular revolts and the rise and fall of various governments, was
captured. She preferred leaping from a window to giving herself up to the
men sent to arrest her.
Elijah remained on the mountain until the end of his days. The Bible says
that one afternoon, when he was conversing with Elisha, the prophet he
had named as his successor, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses
of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind
into heaven.
Almost eight hundred years later, Jesus bade Peter, James, and John to
climb a mountain. The Gospel according to Matthew relates that Jesus
was transfigured before them; and his face did shine as the sun, and his
raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them
Moses and Elias talking with him.
Jesus asks the apostles not to speak of this vision until the Son of Man be
risen from the dead, but they reply that this will happen only when Elijah
returns.
Matthew 17:10 13 tells the rest of the story:
Zd his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias
must first come?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and
restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and
they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.
Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the
Baptist.
MARIA CONCEIVED WITHOUT SIN, PRAY FOR US WHO call on Thee.
Amen.
About the Translator
CLIFFORD E. LANDERS is professor of political science at Jersey City
State College and a premier translator of Latin American fiction. He has
translated into English many of Brazil's top writers, including Jorge
Amado, Rubem Fonseca, and Chico Buarque. He lives in Montclair, New
Jersey.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PAULO COELHO is an international bestselling author whose books The
Alchemist, The Pilgrimage, The Valkyries, By the River Piedra I Sat Down
and Wept, and The Fifth Mountain have sold more than 25 million copies
in 117 countries and have been translated into 43 languages. He lives in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite
HarperCollins author.
ALSO BY PAULO COELHO
The Alchemist
The Pilgrimage
The Valkyries
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
CREDITS
Cover design by Doreen Louie
Cover photograph © 2000 by Colour Library
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are
drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.
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Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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