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Richard Francis Burton
Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) Explorer , Translator , Writer , Poet , and Swordsman
The Kasîdah Of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî
[Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî was simply a pseudonym which Burton used as the author of the poem, crediting himself only as the "translator".]
- Friends of my youth, a last adieu!
haply some day we meet again;
Yet ne'er the self-same men shall meet;
the years shall make us other men. (1)
- Hardly we find the path of love,
to sink the self, forget the "I,"
When sad suspicion grips the heart,
when Man, the Man begins to die: (3)
- How Thought is imp'otent to divine
the secret which the gods defend,
The Why of birth and life and death,
that Isis-veil no hand may rend.
Eternal Morrows make our day;
our is is aye to be till when
Night closes in; 'tis all a dream,,
and yet we die,--and then and THEN?
And still the Weaver plies his loom,
whose warp and woof is wretched Man
Weaving th' unpattern'd dark design,
so dark we doubt it owns a plan. (3)
- Cease, Man, to mourn, to weep, to wail;
enjoy thy shining hour of sun;
We dance along Death's icy brink,
but is the dance less full of fun? (3)
- "How shall the Shown pretend to ken
aught of the Showman or the Show?
"Why meanly bargain to believe,
which only means thou ne'er canst know?
"How may the passing Now contain
the standing Now —Eternity?—
"An endless is without a was ,
the be and never the to-be?
- "You pray, but hath your thought e'er weighed
how empty vain the prayer must be,
"That begs a boon already giv'en,
or craves a change of law to see?
- What call ye them or Goods or Ills,
ill-goods, good-ills, a loss, a gain,
When realms arise and falls a roof;
a world is won, a man is slain?
- ALL Faith is false, all Faith is true:
Truth is the shattered mirror strown
In myriad bits; while each believes
his little bit the whole to own.
- From self-approval seek applause:
What ken not men thou kennest, thou!
Spurn ev'ry idol others raise:
Before thine own Ideal bow:
Be thine own Deus: Make self free,
liberal as the circling air:
Thy Thought to thee an Empire be;
break every prison'ing lock and bar.
- And hold Humanity one man,
whose universal agony
Still strains and strives to gain the goal,
where agonies shall cease to be.
Believe in all things; none believe;
judge not nor warp by "Facts" the thought;
See clear, hear clear, tho' life may seem
Mâyâ and Mirage, Dream and Naught.
Abjure the Why and seek the How:
the God and gods enthroned on high,
Are silent all, are silent still;
nor hear thy voice, nor deign reply.
The Now, that indivisible point
which studs the length of infinite line
Whose ends are nowhere, is thine all,
the puny all thou callest thine.(9)
- Haply the Law that rules the world
allows to man the widest range;
And haply Fate's a Theist-word,
subject to human chance and change.
This "I" may find a future Life,
a nobler copy of our own,
Where every riddle shall be ree'd,
where every knowledge shall be known;
Where 'twill be man's to see the whole
of what on Earth he sees in part;
Where change shall ne'er surcharge the thought;
nor hope defer'd shall hurt the heart. (9)
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