King Baldwin IV:
Come forward. I am glad to meet Godfrey's son. He was one of my greatest teachers. He was there when, playing with the other boys, my arm was cut. It was he, not my father's physicians, who noticed that I felt no pain. He wept when he gave my father the news... that I am a leper. The Saracens say that this disease is God's vengence against the vanity of our kingdom. As wretched as I am, these Arabs believe that the chastisement that awaits me in hell is far more severe and lasting. If that's true, I call it unfair. Come. Sit.
[they sit down on opposite sides of a chessboard]
King Baldwin IV:
Do you play?
Balian of Ibelin:
No.
King Baldwin IV:
The whole world is in chess. Any move can be the death of you. Do anything except remain where you started, and you can't be sure of your end. Were you sure of your end once?
Balian of Ibelin:
I was.
King Baldwin IV:
What was it?
Balian of Ibelin:
To be buried a hundred yards from where I was born.
King Baldwin IV:
And now?
Balian of Ibelin:
Now I sit in Jerusalem, and look upon a king.
King Baldwin IV:
[Baldwin chuckles]
When I was sixteen, I won a great victory. I felt in that moment I would live to be a hundred. Now I know I shall not see thirty. None of us know our end, really, or what hand will guide us there. A king may move a man, a father may claim a son, but that man can also move himself, and only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that howsoever you are played or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone, even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus," or that virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice. Remember that.
Balian of Ibelin:
I will.
Riportata da il
05/03/2025 alle ore 08:28