ABU LALA MAHARI
Abu Lala Mahari, renowned Arab poet of the 10th—11th century, for thirty years lived in Baghdad, the magnificent city of the Khalifs, always lived in glory and munificence; sat at the table of the mighty and the wealthy; argued with the learned and the wise; loved and tempted his fellow-beings; travelled far in the lands of other nations; saw and observed people and their laws, and his penetrating soul understood the man, and comprehended and deeply hated the man and his laws.
And because he did not have a wife and children, he distributed all his wealth among the poor and the needy; and one night while Baghdad slumbered on the bands of the cypress-dotted Tigris River, he gathered his caravan of camels and silently moved out of the city towards the unknown...
FIRST SURA
And the caravan of Abu Lala through the sleeping night moved calmly along;
Stepped softly along through the hush of night, like a gentle stream's soft,
murmuring song.
With measured footsteps they followed the road, that winding and twisting beforethem lay;
The music that streamed from their swaying bells flowed over the desert andfar away.
Baghdad lay lost in voluptuous dreams of Houris and Paradise, passing fair;
The nightingale warbled of love and pain in rose-gardens scented with perfumes rare.
The fountains tossed high their waves in the air with diamond laughter theyfilled the night;
Perfumes and kisses were wafred around in the Caliph's palace ablaze with light.
While above caravans of gem-like stars were wandering along uncharted careers,
And the heavens were filled with their majesty, with the glorious music of thespheres.
Soft tales were told of Arabian Nights by breezes heavy with gilly-flower scent,
The poplars and palm-trees that lined the road to the sighs of the night-windswayed and bent.
Swinging and ringing the camels went on, they never looked to the left nor theright,
And joyful visions filled Abu Lala as he watched the road get lost in the night.
"Move on, move on, beloved caravan, move forward until S have ended my days". "Twas thus that he mused, the Poet sublime, Abu Mahari, the Maker of Lays.
"Go forth to the lonely places of earth, the emerald fields, unsullied and bare;
Fly on to the burning heart of the sun, in that mighty heart consume me upthere.
"No gratitude to my mother I feel, to my father's grave no duty is owed.
Nothing but bitterness fills my soul for the life which they gave, the love theybestowed.
"I loved all mankind; to comrades and friends I was ever faithful, loving andtrue.
I saw men's hearts and I loathed what I saw; my love to a torturing viper grew.
"I hate and despise what I loved before — in the soul of man such things
I have seen;
The spirit of man, so lofty and grand, is filled with evil, and passions obscene.
"But most of all I loathe and detest, the halo they don so shining and bright,
That sanctifies all the evil they work, and crowns their foul deeds with a piouslight.
"0 language of man, whose accents divine conceal his infernal spirit from view,—
Soft accents, in fragrant gossamer veiled — didst ever thou speak one wordthat was true?
"I will pitch my tent amidst writhing snakes— yes, on the poisonous basilisk'sden—
A thousand times safer I'll be with them than in cities with false and smilingmen.
"Or with a companion upon whose breast my weary head I trustingly laid—
A heart that I loved, which with lying smiles my love and my infinite trust
repaid.
"For ever — as long as on Sinai's flanks the fiery sun beats mercilessly —
As long as the heaving waves of the sand break into spray like the foam of thesea —
"I will not return to the haunts of men, nor will I salute them or with them
eat;
The beasts of the wild my comrades shall be, with them I will gladly sit downto meat.
"Let ferocious beasts dismember my limbs, and the sun pour down his fieryrays —
Onward, still onward, my sweet caravan — move onward until the end of mydays!"
Abu Mahari threw a parting glance at sleeping Baghdad that behind him lay.
But his fingers sought the camel's soft neck as with frowns and anger he turnedaway.
He caressed and fondled the gentle beast, and he kissed its innocent limpid eyes,
While on his own lashes there trembled and shone two burning tears he couldnot disguise.
To the gentle rhythm of measured tread they went through the landscape, peacefuland lone,
So onward towards the distance they passed, to the virgin distance of realmsunknown.
SECOND SURA
They twisted and turned as they wound along between slender palm-trees thatlined the roads;
They raised as they passed caravans of sand, that wind-tossed like waves of theocean flowed.
"March on caravan! Have we left,behind one thing we shall pine for at anytime?"
Thus spoke from his heart Abu Mahari, the maker of verse, the Poet sublime.
"Have we left behind a wife or a friend, or justice or law, or honour and truth?
March on, never stop! For all we have left is fetters and chains, and lying uncouth.
"And what is a woman but crafty and mean? Like a jealous spider she weavesher thread;
Her kisses are false; in your very arms she dreams of others — loves only yourbread.
"Trust yourself to the sea, in a rotten boat, but never trust in a woman's word —
She is fair and sweet, a beautiful hell; the voice of Iblis through her lips is heard.
"You have dreamt of a distant star of light — a lily as white as an angel's
wings;
A radiant being to live at your side, to soften your sorrows and sufferings.
"You have longed for her voice breathed in your ear by the sound of distant,murmuring streams
Have visioned soft dews of eternity, and wept on her heavenly breast in dreams.
"But to tortured spirits a woman's love is like salt-water — it fires them more.
Triumphant woman your passions will take, and leave you thirstier than before.
"0 serpentine shape that a woman wears, — criminal, fiendish, beautiful shell
Thou that with bitter delights of the flesh turnest the sun of the soul into hell!
"Love I detest — it is cruel as death; forever it burns and secretly stings
A poisonous wine that to him who drinks wickedness teaches, or slavery brings.
"And woman I hate. She's the fertile cause of unbridled crime, of passion the seed;
A well never failing, whose copiousness steams earth's growing wickedness water and feed.
"Once more I repeat—I hate woman's love. Her pangs of childbirth I curseand denounce.
Her sinister kiss is loathsome to me, her arms and her unclean bed I renounce.
"Agonized childbirth forever her lot, her progeny over the earth run wild.
Vipers and snakes, that each other devour, till their sins the very stars have defiled.
"He is guilty of crime who begets a child. Who out of the heart of nothingness
Endows the atom with feeling and thought, and flings it into life's storm and distress.
"My father sinned against me, but I have sinned against no one," I write in my will;
I would have these words engraved on my tomb when some crevice beneath the moon I fill.
"As long as the sea with its gnawing waves the emerald shores of Hejaz devours
I will never long for a woman's charms, nor visit her baneful, pestilent bowers.
"The prickly thorns of the desert I'll kiss, on the angry thistles I'll take my rest;
I will lay my head on the burning rocks, and weep out my heart on their fiery breast!"
And with gentle ringing the caravan measured the twists of the tortuous road;
To the golden far-off dreamland ahead, all peaceful and calm, it tranquilly flowed.
As though the musical sound of the bells were gentle laments, that would fall and rise,
For all Mahari had loved and forgone, they seemed to be mourning with tender sighs.
While the flutes of the zephyrs, soft and mild, sweet melodies played with their dreamy sound;
Of the wounds of love, of longing and pain, they wafted entrancing music around.
And Abu Lala, in his musings lost, visions as long as eternity dreamed; —
Visions as long as the road he pursued, that endlessly winding before him streamed.
Enmeshing himself with that endless road he mourned in his heart by night and day;
He sought the invisible stars of heaven, and somberly pensive went on his way.
And he never vouchsafed a glance behind; for all he had left there was no regret.
No word he exchanged, no greeting he gave to the passing wayfarers that they met.
THIRD SURA
And the caravan of Abu Lala to its rippling bells marched calmly along.
Went softly along in the moon's soft light, to the sound of its sweet and gentle song.
Like a beautiful Houri of Jennet, now heedlessly showing her snow-white breast,
Now coyly hiding in gossamer clouds, the moon glided over a world at rest.
The sweet-scented flowers had fallen asleep, they sparkled with diamonds and jewels bright;
The rainbow-winged birds each other caressed, and warbled their songs in the hush of night.
And the scented breezes unfolded tales of the thousand and one Arabian Nights,
While over the road the poplars soughed, and the palm-trees swayed in their feathery heights.
And listening to the speech of the wind, Abu Mahari spoke his wordless thought;
"The world is also a tale that is told, with endless, beginningless wonders fraught.
"And who has woven this tale sublime, entwined it with stars, and its wonders planned?
Who tells the story in thousands of forms, in eternal words surpassingly grand?
"Great nations have come, great nations have gone; but none of them could this marvel descry;
To poets alone it is revealed, who have lisped it in words that will never die.
"No man its beginning has ever heard, and no one will hear the end of this tale;
Each accent and word for ages endure, no syllable can be irksome or stale.
"And the wondrous story is always told to every babe as it enters the world —
For each new-born babe it begins and ends, to every person the scene is unfurled.
"The world is a story, life is a dream, nations and men, caravans that pass by.
From cradle to grave still onward they pass, in a living dream, without knowing why.
"0 dull and visionless children of men, to this transcendence you will not attend;
You turn its nobleness into a hell, and like beasts of prey each other you rend.
"The laws that you make are burdens and whips, like a spider's web, a maze without clues;
They poison the very nightingale's song, the perfume of flowers and their rainbowhues.
"0 hapless men, your iniquitous hearts, the contemptible works in which you trust,
By Time's indiscriminate hand effaced, will turn to ashes and crumble to dust.
Your mouldering bones, your miserable works, by ruthless storms will be shattered and blown;
And you never turned to gladden your hearts with the glorious works around you strown!"
On the pathways of heaven the star-jewels blazed, wandering along their lonely careers,
And the heavens were filled with the joyful sound, the majestic music of the Spheres.
And the whole of the earth overflowed with joy, enchanted with these eternal strains;
She lifted her soul from the slimy depths, and listening, forgot her sorrows and pains.
"Onward caravan!and mingle your bells with ffie jubilant music of the sky;
Onward through Nature's motherly heart; let your sordid cares to the tempest fly!
"To new horizons bear me away, to an unknown climate, a luminous strand;
A lone oasis my cloister shall be, an ever fresh stream in a thirsty land.
"Softly, in star-language, speak to my heart — converse with my spirit, thouwordless sky.
Comfort my soul lacerated by men, and list to my tortured, pitiful cry.
"There lives in me an unquenchable thirst for amourning heart akin to my own —
A vision divine possesses my soul, a dream out of all my sufferings grown.
"My spirit is free — I will not permit coercion or force to rule over me;
Neither laws or bounds, nor evil nor good; neither courts of judgment nor destiny.
"I want no protection over my head, no rights I demand, no surety ask —
All is debasing that's outside my will — it's Tyranny wearing Protection'smask.
"Without any restraint — yes, god-less, too — I wish for unlimited liberty;
My soul for unbounded liberty cries — for freedom as infinite as the sea!"
And the caravan weaved its way along, while star-jewels brightly shone overhead -
The ever-free stars, with their child-like smile — the eternal stars over all were spread.
And lovingly to his spirit they called, with luminous twinklings of golden eyes,
And with noble music his soul was filled, the unbroken harmonies of the skies.
In the turquoise night the enchanted road like a wisp of silver before them lay;
So swinging art J ringing its magic bells — the caravan went on its endless way.
FOURTH SURA
Like an ebon eagle, gigantic and grim, the awesome Night spread its wings around;
Swooped down from the skies on camels and road, and about the desert its pinions wound.
The heavens were blackened from end to end, covered with threatening, loweringclouds;
The moon and the stars no longer shone out; black vapours enwrapped them withsombre shrouds.
Like reinless horses the terrible winds without any check to the onslaught flew.
They raised in columns the burning sands, and the face of the sky was hidden from view.
While in mortal terror they shrieked and yelled, and their howlings filled the spaces around;
They sounded like agonized beasts of prey which in the upheaval a voice had found.
In the narrow valleys they staggered and reeled, in the palm-groves they seemed to shiver and mourn;
The suffering winds lamented and wept, like spirits disconsolate and forlorn.
’’'March on, caravan, on the edge of the world unfearingly face the pitiless wind!"
Thus Abu Lala, the Poet sublime, conversed with himself in the depth of his mind.
"Ye tempests, your fury pour down on my head - collect your forces from far and near,
Istand in your presence with blameless heart, 1 do not fear you--my conscience isclear.
"The venomous cities, where senseless men allow their passions to swelter and burn
Are whirlpools of blood and hot-beds of crime, to them I shall never again return.
"My shelterless head shall never return to luxuries which I loathed and disdained;
Woe unto the man that possesses wealth — to his doorstep like a dog he is chained.
"Strike at the house of my father ye winds — its very foundation annihilate.
Scatter its dust over all the earth, for endless wanderings are henceforth my fate.
"Nothing but solitude henceforth I crave, the camels alone my comrades shall be;
My consolation the road without end, and the star-strewn heavens my canopy:
"0 enchanted road, whose vanishing end is in magic realms and unexplored skies —
Bear away my heart with its ceaseless grief to regions untarnished by human eyes.
"With men thou must ever be on thy guard — thy sword in thy hand and always alert;
Must guard against friend and foe alike if thou wouldst not be rifled or wronged or hurt.
"And first from my friends I ask to be saved. Like insatiable gnats they buzz around.
They will fly away if your blood is thin, and follow you if you're rich or renowned.
"Only a friend or a comrade I loved could have wounded me so incurably.
My heart with a lying kiss they unlocked, with kisses they stabbed and agonized me.
"A thousand times false is the heart of man. With the friendship which he proffered and gave,
He stole the innermost thoughts of my heart, then bound me in chains and made me his slave.
"Once more, what are friends? For jealous and mean, though they dog your steps they are broken reeds.
The dog who calls you his friend will not bite; the friend will attack and slander your deeds."
The winds like mischievous friends rushed on, and lunged at the face of Abu Mahari.
They sported and revelled and clapped their hands, and tugged at his garments mercilessly.
And slithering down the slopes of the hills raised legions of sand with every gust.
They broke on the sage's desolate thoughts; they plugged his eyes and his nostrils with dust.
FIFTH SURA
And turning neither to right nor to left the caravan made its fearless advance.
To the sound of its agitated bells it cut through the elements' impish dance.
"What is a friend?" Thus Abu Mahari, resumed his reflections, that had no end.
In my faithful heart I cherished a snake — fly on caravan, my only true friend.
"Wherever you go pass on from that place — still onward! — march on, never rest nor stay.
And let men never my sufferings know — take me and lose me in realms faraway.
"What have we foregone, what is left behind that should call us back to the seething town?
Fly on, caravan! — what is there behind? Power and glory, or wealth andrenown?
”And what is glory? Today you will find the populace carry you shoulder-high;
Tomorrow those people will throw you down; will trample on you, your merits decry.
"What is the applause, the homage of men? They worship your gold — their hearts are not true.
When you are fallen, the dust of your feet becomes a hero and persecutes you.
"And what is money? The symbol of power, the robe of office an idiot wears.
It is blood pressed out of a million souls, the flesh of dead bodies, the orphan's tear.
"The untaught rabble I view with contempt; tyranny's anchor, man's spirit they crush.
Their ignorance is the germ of all crime, like beasts of prey on their victims they rush.
"What are the masses? The enemy's camp — each man a slave with invisiblechains.
Have they ever soared to your spirit's height, or followed the nobler trend of yourbrains?
"Pitiful millions, a struggling mass, your good and your evil imposed with the lash;
With ravenous shears, that rifle the world, reducing all to a uniform hash.
"And what is the law, so reverenced by man? A shield to the strong, a threat to the weak.
All-powerful weapon in mighty hands, a sword hanging over the poor and meek.
"Seven times seven, I loathe human rule; whole generations it swallows or maims.
Rapacious usurers, sponging thieves, ever inciting to war and flames.
"The law was a brigand and murder in all past ages — and coming ones, too.
The paths which it took are stained with crime, they are full of sorrow and blood and rue.
"It sits like a monster upon my breast, its talons are struck in my very heart;
It has put a lock on my mind and tongue, it has chained my steps and my every part.
"It crushes our shoulders and weighs them down, it finds and oppresses us everywhere.
And in our innocent country's name raises tombs and monuments high in the air.
"The will of the ruler is all in all; righteousness, justice and law he decides;
He is our conscience for evil and good; we are just nothing — our morals heguides.
"I curse the potentates — pillars of state; like long-clawed badgers they stir up the mud.
Infants and aged are their victims alike — each of their steps is a downpour ofblood.
''Contemptible man, both coward and slave, who placed the sword in your similar's hand?
Who gave him the right of revenge, and the task his fellow-men to rule and command?
"Beloved caravan to the home of the asps take me and bury me peacefully.
Deliver me from the rulers of men,from their cruel protection liberate me!"
The lightnings, flashing in fiery haste, tore up into shreds the mountains of cloud.
The sand in columns flew from the assault, and the silvery hills their summits bowed.
And the tempest roared, while the poplars and palms swaying and moaning weptoverhead.
The camels flew on the wings of the wind — faster and faster still onward theysped.
They ran and they raced to their jangled bells, they raised up the sands that hid them from sight.
You would think that they fled from some evil power — from the drunken despot's malice and spite.
SIXTH SURA
And under the burning noonday sun narcissus and rose wafted fragrance around,
While the caravan, exhausted and worn, crawled languidly over the sand-heapedground.
"Fly on caravan, through storm and through stress, to the heart of the sands, your journey's goal!"
Thus Abu Lala, the Poet sublime, still voiced the laments of his bitter soul.
"Let the desert wind my countenance lash, forever my footprints let it efface;
Let no man breathe the air I have breathed, and let no one discover my hiding place.
"I see the tawny lions at times, through their golden lashes they look in my eyes.
I see them and see with each gust of wind from their ruffled manes bright
flashes arise.
"Come on! J call to them, I'm not afraid; my sickened heart you can take anddevour.
I ask no protection of wicked men; before you I neither tremble nor cower.
"For what are men but demons in masks? With tentacles armed, and invisibleclaws,
Sharp teeth they have and are raving wolves', their tongue is a poisoned spearin their jaws.
"A pack of foxes, malicious and false, designing and hypocrites—men are such;
They are brutal slayers of innocent babes; they torture all that fall in their clutch.
"Adversity makes them servile and mean — when they are needy they kneel andthey whine.
When thriving they give no thought to the poor, they're contemptuous, haughtyand malign.
"Virtue is ever the victim of vice, the loss of the one is the other's gain;
The handful of good in the field of life they smother with thorns and thistlesremain.
"0 far-away men, your evil and good, your sham religions I loathe and dispraise,
They only serve to forge fetters and chains, for your hapless victims dungeonsto raise.
"Hypocritical world, where Almighty Gold will prove the villain noble andright -
The idiot a genius, the coward brave, the shameless harlot an Angel of Light!
"0 world of men, an ocean of blood, where the weak is guilty, the mighty isjust;
Where comtemptible man will use his powers to work for nothing but profit andlust!
"For nothing but gain. To the grabbing claw honour and sanctity men will
ascribe;
Such ever is man, 'the Image of God' — whom 'Sons of the Devil' would bestdescribe.
"My camels' footsteps could I but count impressed one by one on this measurelesSway.
Those footsteps would never equal the sum of wickedness done in a single day.
"The North and the South, the East and the West, I challenge, denouncingthe human race.
Let the winds of heaven give heed to my words, and candidly judge the rights ofmy case.
From ocean to ocean, from land to land transport on your wanderings my
thoughts of flame.
That if there is anything worse than man, it is man again — this dogma
proclaim.
"As long as the stars with unquenchable rays above the desert twinkle and gleam;
As long as the shifting sand of the waste with hissings and rustlings like serpentsstream —
"Fly on caravan!—and leave far behind, those disgraceful scenes of pleasuresobscene —
Lascivious feasts and wicked delights, lies and hypocrisy, profits unclean.
"Escape from it all — from the vengeance of man — his bloodstained justice andrighteousness;
Fly from your friend, your wife and your love — discard all those pleasuresthat storm and stress.
"Go on, my camels, and under your feet trample down the laws of Justice andRight.
Let all authority, evil and good by the dust you raise be hidd;n fromsight.
"Let lions and tigers tear me to bits, let serpentine whirlwinds about me twist —
Go on through them all, beloved caravan, as long as I live on your way persist!"
Their bow-shaped necks to the utmost stretched the camels like arrows shot forwardand sped.
They ran and they raced, while the dust they raised in towering columns behindthem fled.
To the distant horizon, the desert's heart, through many a sundried plain they flew,
Veiling in curtains of dust the huts and the palm trees that in the oases grew.
You would have thought that Abu Mahari was flying away from some dreadful sin;
You would have thought that Woman and Law with their fearful weapons wereclose upon him.
So faster and faster, with clanging bells, the camels raced on, and never lookedrourd.
Many a city they passed on their way, in chains of passion and avarice bound.
For ever their pace accelerating, spurred on by their love for the Star of Day
They ran and they clanged past towers and towns where age-long ignorancepetrified lay.
To his joyless eyes the camels appeared like a flight of falcons tossed by the wind -
All scattered about and trying in vain from the blasting storm some refuge tofind.
And tearlessly he wept in his heart, and his sorrow resembled infinity —
Like the endless road that before him lay, which seemed to wind onwardeternally —
He never repined for what he had left— one look of regret he did not accord;
He never greeted the passers-by, and their greetings to him he calmly ignored.
SEVENTH SURA
And the caravan of Abu Lala in the great Arabian deserts wild knelt wearilydown.
All the horizon, the wastes of sand, and the desert around flamed fiery red;
And Darkness was weaving her velvet screen across the flames of the heavens tospread.
And Abu Lala sat down by himself, his forehead against a boulder reclined,
His eye still searching the distance, but now his soul was at rest and peaceful hismind.
"At last I am free — unfettered and free! Did the desert perform this miracle?
Has it taken me into its sandy arms my tortured spirit to soothe and still?
"No human eye can behold me now, no wickedness cause me grief or despair;
О liberty thou art sweet to my heart as the roses of heaven with perfumes rare.
"Enlighten my soul with thy shining torch, thy roses entwine round my foreheadpale;
0 liberty, essence of Paradise, immortal Koran of the Nightingale!
"And beautiful desert of golden sands, a thousand times I pay homage to thee —
Thou undefiled land, where no evil is wrought, no wickedness lives — man fromman is free!
"Let thy waves flow out over all the earth — thy yellow waves over nation andrace —
Over town and hamlets, markets of gain, the glorious palace, the meanest place.
"Let thy dragon-tempests Freedom enthrone, let Liberty reign over all the world,
And let it be sanctioned and glorified by the noble Sun, with its beams unfurled!"
With a thousand, thousand effulgent hues and dazzlingly brilliant the sunrisecame;
Majestic, and steeped in ineffable light, with rainbow colours and shafts of flame.
And to greet the light of the radiant Sun the awakened desert its face upraised —
Like some titanic lion of old the aureate waves of its sandhills blazed.
"All hail unto thee, bright Day Star, all hail! Thou fountain of life, all-powerfulone;
My mother eternal, my mother's arms, thou only art pure, and good, thou alone.
"Inexhaustible cup of golden wine, thou dispensest happiness everywhere —
The wine of pleasure, the light of joy, and peace and contentment are all in thysphere.
"0 thou that inspires a thousand hearts, thou beautiful Sun, come forth in thymight!
I open before thee my thirsting soul; 0 pour into it the wine of thy light!
"Thy brightness vouchsafe, with thy joy of life, with joy eternal intoxicate me!
Grant me everlasting forgetfulness, replenish my spirit with ecstasy!
O make me drunken, intoxicate me, with wine immortal intoxicate me!
I want to forget what is dark and false; I would fain relinquish life's misery!
By your deathlessness and nobility enrapture my heart with radiant delight;
Invincible foe of all that is dark, mother of springtime and everything bright.
"My only beloved, thou alone art good, beloved as my mother's spotless embrace.
Thou art all-merciful, loving and sweet, thou art enchanting, and lovely thyface.
"Thou art my loved one, thou art my beloved, with fiery love consume me, andburn.
Thy glorious tresses over me spread, speak softly to me, to caress me turn.
"And draw the blood from my colourless lips, with kisses of fire; let them burnand sting;
And clasp me close to thy bosom of light, my passionate heart to thy feet I bring".
Then Abu Lala to the camels turned. "My noble camels, arise to your feet,
And shake from your knees the serfdom of earth; rise up the all— glorious Sunto greet!
"And let my ears grow heavy and deaf, let me no more hear the tumult of earth,
And let my eyes be blinded and gone that they never more see what is nothingworth.
"Forever towards the Sun you must fly, beloved caravan, from age until age —
Forever towards the Centre of Light whose splendour alone my grief can assuage.
"Dear Sun, my mother, thy rainbow of gems around my shoulders encircle andbind —
That triumphantly I may fly to thee, and in thy effulgence salvation find!
"0 strongest of gods, and light of my Eyes, my only mother, I come unto thee!
Only thou art good, thou holy and pure, 1 would rest in thine arms eternally."
LAST SURA
And the camels shining like golden boats, through the ardent sandhills cleavingtheir way
Raced forward anew on their nimble feet in the dazzling light of the new-bornday.
And never sirocco on wings of flame was rapid enough to fly in their wake;
And. never a dart from the Bedouin's bow their fleeting footsteps could overtake.
Cool shadows that lay at the sandhills' foot seemed songs of passion to breatheand inspire;
And the rippling fountains warbled and sang of innocent love to a virgin lyre.
But Abu Lala would pay them no heed; with the joys of earth long since he haddone
Relentlessly on and onward he fled his visage aglow, his eyes like the. sun.
The mirages gave him transcendent thoughts with myriads of strange and alluringdreams.
They made his enchanted spirit to leap with their shimmering lights and flashinggleams.
With loosened halters the camels flew on — exalted, alert, still quickening
their pace,
They rushed wildly on like a mighty wind, swirling and frenzied they fled intospace.
And still as farther they joyously pressed more brightly in the transcendence theyglowed,
And the music of their sonorous bells in the purified air more sweetly flowed.
His eye unflinching bent on the sun, like an eagle that knows no thought of fear,
Abu Mahari flew tirelessly on, his spirit lightened and full of cheer.
Behind him lay only the desert sands in the arms of the glowing light outspread,
And the blazing hair of the beautiful Sun streamed far in the heavens above hishead.
And clothed in purple all broidered with gold Abu Mahari, the Poet sublime,
Triumphantly flew through the fields of space victorious and great till the Endof Time. |
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