from final paragraphs of Chapter "David" in Roberto Calasso's
The Book of all Books (2019, American Edition, Farrar, Straus
& Giloux, transl. by Tim Parks)
In the last years of his life, David
preferred studying to fighting.
Yahweh had told him he would
die on the Sabbath. Every
Sabbath, David would immerse
himself entirely in the Torah,
because he knew that the Angel
of Death cannot strike a person
studying the Torah. His attention
was keen, fluid, constant. From
the garden came a sound. David
raised his head and his eyes were
flooded with a dappled glow. The
garden was in full bloom. What
was that sound? Some kind of call?
Still deep in thought, David got up
from the table and walked slowly
to the window. He gazed ahead as
he went down the few stairs that
separated him from the garden.
His foot slipped and he fell, banging
the back of his head on a stone. His
lifeless body lay there in the sunshine,
because it was the Sabbath and no
one could touch him. But soon
four eagles glided around him to
shade him with their wings, as
if beneath a black tent.
(pages 46 - 7).
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