HIRAM’S TESTAMENT - Masonic Oratorio

HIRAM’S TESTAMENT - Masonic Oratorio
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HIRAM’S TESTAMENT
Libretto after the legend of Hiram, the builder of King Solomon’s Temple
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NARRATOR: When King Solomon decided to build the Temple, he informed his master builder and ordered him to conduct the works. The master builder endowed with the building of the Temple was Hiram Abif, son of a widow from Naphtali order. In order to reward each worker according to his dueness, Hiram classified them as apprentices, assistants and masters, and gave them different signs and words of recognition.
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When the works were nearing completion, and no master word was given to them, fifteen assistants decided to ask for it, so they be considered master builders wherever they went, and rewarded accordingly. Suspecting that Hiram would not give the word willingly since it was not yet the right time for it, they hatched a plot to get the word from the master by force if necessary. However, twelve of them repented because of this dishonorable plan and withdrew. The three remaining assistants were resolved to get the master builder password notwithstanding the manner or price.
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CHORUS
He who lives not after death
May not have lived at all.
He is but a pale shadow
In life and below the earth.
As if he never ploughed a furrow,
Sewn the seed or picked the fruit,
As if he never scratched the soil,
Never reaped the corn.
Eternal darkness in his soul,
Cold and misery, waste and grief.
-Is he a man, or else?
Was he a man? What is he now?
As a shadow he wanders
Not knowing to be dead:
-Man, come alive, open your eyes!
Man, awake... ‘Tis not your fault.
You cannot know other kind
Or the infinite power of cognition.
Rise, awaken, strike the light,
That ray of knowledge may win the night.
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NARRATOR: Everybody knew that each noon, when workers were resting, Hiram went to the Temple to pray. One day, at high noon, the plotters went to the three Gates of the Temple, to South, West and East, to force Hiram, on his way out, to give them the master password.
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After he had finished praying, Hiram went toward the South Gate and the first conspirator blocked his way and menacingly asked for the word. The master builder calmly replied the word could not be acquired in such a manner, but only by patient indulgence. Not satisfied with the answer, the assistant stroke him with the plumb line, but missed the forehead and hit the right temple. Hiram stumbled and fell on his knees.
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After that, confused and bruised, Hiram ran toward the West Gate, where the second conspirator stood before him and asked for the password. Hiram gave him the same answer. The angry assistant hit him powerfully with the level on the left temple. The master builder stumbled again and, already badly injured, went to the East Gate. There, the third conspirator stopped him. Although faced with imminent death, Hiram did not waiver. He said not a word and received the last, deadly blow of a pointed hammer in the forehead.
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BARITON
In mother’s lap, you
Prepare for this worldly life.
In wandering about, your spirit
Ripens, awaiting new birth.
Follow the flaming star
On its eastward flight,
By proper deeds
Give sense to life.
Let wisdom conceive form
And strength build it up;
The splendour of beauty complete
With the Temple of humanity.
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NARRATOR:
Since it was still daylight, Hiram’s murderers dared not take him outside the Temple to bury him, but hid his body underneath a pile of rubble. When the night fell, and the workers retired, they took him from there and buried him on the slope of a hill.
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It was soon noticed that Hiram was missing and King Solomon ordered pursuit. Conscience struck the twelve assistants who had previously abandoned the murderous plan. With white gloves as signs of their innocence, they approached the King and revealed the secret. He sent them after the murderers. In groups of three they went to the east, south, west and north... While resting against a rock, one of them heard a voice from a nearby cave: “Oh, let me sleep and never wake again. Never see the sun or the moon.” Another voice was wailing: “Oh, let me float away with the tide and may elder tree grow on my hearth. Cursed be myself for ever”, and the third: “I hit him harder than you! I killed him! Oh, let me be crucified on the crossroads, let me die and turn to dust and perish from this and the world beyond!”
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The assistant, who heard the moaning, called his companions. They caught the murderers, chained them and brought them before King Solomon. The King ordered that they be beheaded and sent master builders to look for Hiram’s body in order to bury it as befits him, in a sacred place. Because of what had happened, the King decided to change the master password and replace it with the first word spoken by those who find Hiram’s body.
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The place where Hiram had been buried was found accidentally, when one of the searchers grabbed a bush, climbing a hill. The bush remained in his hand, since placed there only recently to hide the freshly dug earth – Hiram’s grave. Removing the earth, the builders found Hiram’s body that had been lying there for a fortnight. In horror, their arms went up, then down on their aprons, and they cried: Oh, what a horrible death. This then became the new master builder password. They buried Hiram again and marked the grave with a branch of acacia, in order to find it again. Pained, they returned to tell King Solomon the sad story. Hiram was soon afterwards taken to the Temple and buried as befitted his talent and the rank he held in life...
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Fear of death is a manifestation of man’s ignorance. Death takes away from him his body, the instrument that satisfies his turbulent instincts. Man turned only toward the transient sees death as the end. The one who perceives death in the proper way will develop the freedom of his spirit to full maturity and understand that another, higher life is born under the arch of death. Not: Be and die, but – die and be are the Old Testament words.
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CHORUS
Good is death that endows eternal life,
Reality alternating with eternal sleep;
Let each man build a Temple in himself
And thus approach his Maker.
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What you do only for yourself
Will perish with you as temporary.
What you do for others
Remains forever as immortal.