Cuniculus The emergence of a man

In English

The earth is desolated, infertile, poisoned. There are holes under the ground and entrances to endless tunnels. And in this dark world they lived, in their sick skins with their countless children: there they breathed the stinking air, there they ate, they nibbled, they snored and they copulated.

A man lived in this world and believed he was a hare. The hares were afraid of the LORD, he lived outside and no one was allowed to look the LORD in the eye.  And so the man too was afraid of the LORD.

Living amongst them was the mother hare Emma, who provided for all the hares.  Every day she went Outside. She was the only one who knew how to survive out there. Every day she saw the LORD, face to face, and every day she came back with food – and terrible wounds.

She could not talk about Outside, as she no longer had a tongue. And so the hares were obeisant to their mother, and the man was obeisant to her too. But the hares were contemptuous of the man, as he was not like them.

One day the mother hare felt she was coming to the end of her life. The hares and the man cowered together and cried, »Who will feed us?« And when no answer came, they shouted, »We will all die! We will eat our children!« And still no answer came.