DONALD DAVIE
Three Pastors In Berlin
Nemeth:
I was the Nazis' padre, you might say;
Magyar, you see, not Slav. Hungarians
Served with the
Wehrlllacht.
Did you know that, padre)
Col/ills:
I don't quite see what that.
Nemeth:
Of course not. And quite right.
Magyars were by courtesy Aryans,
All that in the long ago, before you were born.
"His beauty to consume away like a moth,"
The psalmist says . But to the point: my claim.
It is by right of, don't you say,
the c/oth?
Pastor, I need a pastor; need him now!
And not with a German name, for various reasons.
I come to you. Confession and abso luti on
By a protestant rite, from some one who's not German:
That's what not I but one of my sometime flock is
Parching for; drools for it, and from me won't do.
You're chaplain to the Occupying Forces,
And English too. Your chrism he'll think sterling.
Col/ills:
Oh my lord - I don't mean that, but oh
Gosh! I'll be glad to obli ge. It 's rather
Out of my line (which is dealing with kiddies, mostly),
But I expect the drill is in the Prayer Book.
As everything is, if you look. It calls for some
Study though, and prayer. The penitent
Is not, I suppose, available just now.
Oh he is? Well, give me twenty minutes.
The church is two doors up, by the football-field.
Goodness me ... But wait! you say he is
Protestant, I think my Free Church colleague ...
There are sects, you know, that differ quite a lot ..
