The End of Genesis B!

Then spoke Eve in reply, the brightest of women,
the most splendid lady; she was the craft of God,
although she was bereaved by the devil’s wiles:
“You could blame me for it, my dear friend Adam,
with your words. It could not distress you worse
in your mind than it is does in my heart.” (820-26)

Then Adam answered her: “If I knew the will of the Wielder,
what I should have as punishment—even though
the God of Heaven were to command me to wade into the sea
from here right now, to go into the flood, were it never so deep,
the sea-stream so great, you would never see my mind doubt it so readily,
but I would venture to the very bottom if I could work God’s will.
There is need for me in this world for any vassalage,
now that I have forfeited the favor of my Lord, and I can no longer have it.
But the two of us cannot exist thus bare together at all.
Let us go into the forest, into the shelter of this wood.” (827-40a)

The two of them turned, going separately sorrowing
into the green wood, sitting apart, to await the decree
of the Heaven-King himself, because they then
were no longer permitted to possess what Almighty God
had once given them. Then they covered their body-homes
with leaves, concealed themselves with foliage,
for they had no clothes. Yet they fell into prayer, the two of them
together, every morning, asking the Mighty One,
God Almighty that he not forget them, and instruct them,
the Sovereign, how they must live thenceforth in the light. (840b-51)