The Kadisah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi | Page 4

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?
��Who made your Maker? If Self-made,
why fare so far to fare the worse?��Sufficeth not a world of worlds,
a self-made chain of universe?
��Grant an Idea, Primal Cause,
the Causing Cause, why crave for more??��Why strive its depth and breadth to mete,
to trace its work, its aid to ��implore?
��Unknown, Incomprehensible,
whate��er you choose to call it, call;?��But leave it vague as airy space,
dark in its darkness mystical.
��Your childish fears would seek a Sire,
by the non-human God defin��d,?��What your five wits may wot ye weet;
what is you please to dub ��design��d;��
��You bring down Heav��en to vulgar Earth;
your maker like yourselves you make,?��You quake to own a reign of Law,
you pray the Law its laws to break;
��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?
��Say, Man, deep learn��d in the Scheme
that orders mysteries sublime,?��How came it this was Jesus, that
was Judas from the birth of Time?
��How I the tiger, thou the lamb;
again the Secret, prithee, show?��Who slew the slain, bowman or bolt
or Fate that drave the man, the bow?
��Man worships self: his God is Man;
the struggling of the mortal mind?��To form its model as ��twould be,
the perfect of itself to find.
��The God became sage, priest and scribe
where Nilus�� serpent made the vale;?��A gloomy Brahm in glowing Ind,
a neutral something cold and pale:
��Amid the high Chaldean hills
a moulder of the heavenly spheres;?��On Guebre steppes the Timeless-God
who governs by his dual peers:
��In Hebrew tents the Lord that led
His leprous slaves to fight and jar;?��Yahveh,* Adon or Eloh?m,
the God that smites, the Man of War.
? Jehovah.
��The lovely Gods of lib��ertine Greece,
those fair and frail humanities?��Whose homes o��erlook��d the Middle Sea,
where all Earth��s beauty cradled lies,
��Ne��er left its bless��d bounds, nor sought
the barb��arous climes of barb��arous gods?��Where Odin of the dreary North
o��er hog and sickly mead-cup nods:
��And when, at length, ��Great Pan is dead��
uprose the loud and dol��orous cry?��A glamour wither��d on the ground,
a splendour faded in the sky.
��Yea, Pan was dead, the Nazar��ene came
and seized his seat beneath the sun,?��The votary of the Riddle-god,
whose one is three and three is one;
��Whose sadd��ening creed of herited Sin
spilt o��er the world its cold grey spell;?��In every vista showed a grave,
and ��neath the grave the glare of Hell;
��Till all Life��s Po��esy sinks to prose;
romance to dull Real��ity fades;?��Earth��s flush of gladness pales in gloom
and God again to man degrades.
��Then the lank Arab foul with sweat,
the drainer of the camel��s dug,?��Gorged with his leek-green lizard��s meat,
clad in his filthy rag and rug,
��Bore his fierce Allah o��er his sands
and broke, like lava-burst upon?��The realms where reigned pre-Adamite Kings,
where rose the Grand Kayanian throne.*
? Kayani��of the race of Cyrus; old Guebre heroes.
��Who now of ancient Kayomurs,
of Zal or Rustam cares to sing,?��Whelmed by the tempest of the tribes
that called the Camel-driver King?
��Where are the crown of Kay Khusraw,
the sceptre of An?shirwan,?��The holy grail of high Jamsh?d,
Afrasiyab��s hall?��Canst tell me, man?
��Gone, gone, where I and thou must go,
borne by the winnowing wings of Death,?��The Horror brooding over life,
and nearer brought with every breath:
��Their fame hath filled the Seven Climes,
they rose and reigned, they fought and fell,?��As swells and swoons across the wold
the tinkling of the Camel��s bell.��
V
There is no Good, there is no Bad;
these be the whims of mortal will:?What works me weal that call I ��good,��
what harms and hurts I hold as ��ill:��
They change with place, they shift with race;
and, in the veriest span of Time,?Each Vice has worn a Virtue��s crown;
all Good was banned as Sin or Crime:
Like ravelled skeins they cross and twine,
while this with that connects and blends;?And only Khizr* his eye shall see
where one begins, where other ends:
? Supposed to be the Prophet Elijah.
What mortal shall consort with Khizr,
when Musa turned in fear to flee??What man foresees the flow��er or fruit
whom Fate compels to plant the tree?
For Man��s Free-will immortal Law,
Anagk��, Kismet, Des��tiny read?That was, that is, that aye shall be,
Star, Fortune, Fate, Urd, Norn or Need.
��Man��s nat��ural state is God��s design;��
such is the silly sage��s theme;?��Man��s primal Age was Age of Gold;��
such is the Poet��s waking dream:
Delusion, Ign��orance! Long ere Man
drew upon Earth his earliest breath?The world was one contin��uous scene
of anguish, torture, prey and Death;
Where hideous Theria of the wild
rended their fellows limb by limb;?Where horrid Saurians of the sea
in waves of blood were wont to swim:
The ��fair young Earth�� was only fit
to spawn her frightful monster-brood;?Now fiery hot, now icy frore,
now reeking wet with steamy flood.
Yon glorious Sun, the greater light,
the ��Bridegroom�� of the royal Lyre,?A flaming, boiling, bursting mine;
a grim black orb of whirling fire:
That gentle Moon, the lesser light,
the Lover��s lamp, the Swain��s delight,?A ruined world, a