We May Eat Fruit — Richard Prins

 


Richard Prins is a lifelong New Yorker. Forthcoming projects include Brain Flavor: A Lyric History of Swahili Hip Hop (No University Press) and his translation of the Swahili novel They Are Us (University of Georgia Press), which received a 2023 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant and 2024 National Endowment For the Arts Translation Fellowship. His work also appears in The Best American Essays 2024.



Jesus Said




The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.

The hireling flees because he is a hireling,

sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep.

I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.


The hireling flees because he is a hireling.

Whoever desires to save his life will lose it.

I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you

as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.


Whoever desires to save his life will lose it.

Bad fruit will be chopped down and burned.

As a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,

her rooster crows: You will deny me.


Bad fruit will be chopped down and burned.

But if the salt loses the taste of salt,

the rooster crows. You will deny me

if you do whatever I command you.


But if the salt loses the taste of salt,

everyone will be seasoned with fire.

If you do whatever I command you,

cast out demons you have received.


Everyone will be seasoned with fire.

I am the true vine, and my Father

cast out demons. You have received

my body which is broken for you.


I am the true vine. And my Father

sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep

my body, which is broken for you.

The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.