The Kadisah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi | Page 5

globe burnt out,
a corpse upon the road of night.
What reckt he, say, of Good or Ill
who in the hill-hole made his lair,?The blood-fed rav��ening Beast of prey,
wilder than wildest wolf or bear?
How long in Man��s pre-Ad��amite days
to feed and swill, to sleep and breed,?Were the Brute-biped��s only life,
a perfect life sans Code or Creed?
His choicest garb a shaggy fell,
his choicest tool a flake of stone;?His best of orn��aments tattoo��d skin
and holes to hang his bits of bone;
Who fought for female as for food
when Mays awoke to warm desire;?And such the Lust that grew to Love
when Fancy lent a purer fire.
Where then ��Th�� Eternal nature-law
by God engraved on human heart?��?Behold his simiad sconce and own
the Thing could play no higher part.
Yet, as long ages rolled, he learnt
from Beaver, Ape and Ant to build?Shelter for sire and dam and brood,
from blast and blaze that hurt and killed;
And last came Fire; when scrap of stone
cast on the flame that lit his den,?Gave out the shining ore, and made
the Lord of beasts a Lord of men.
The ��moral sense,�� your Zahid-phrase,
is but the gift of latest years;?Conscience was born when man had shed
his fur, his tail, his pointed ears.
What conscience has the murd��erous Moor,
who slays his guest with felon blow,?Save sorrow he can slay no more,
what prick of pen��itence can he know?
You cry the ��Cruelty of Things��
is myst��ery to your purblind eye,?Which fixed upon a point in space
the general project passes by:
For see! the Mammoth went his ways,
became a mem��ory and a name;?While the half-reasoner with the hand*
survives his rank and place to claim.
? The Elephant.
Earthquake and plague, storm, fight and fray,
portents and curses man must deem?Since he regards his self alone,
nor cares to trace the scope, the scheme;
The Quake that comes in eyelid��s beat
to ruin, level, ��gulf and kill,?Builds up a world for better use,
to general Good bends special Ill:
The dreadest sound man��s ear can hear,
the war and rush of stormy Wind?Depures the stuff of human life,
breeds health and strength for humankind:
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?
And thus the race of Being runs,
till haply in the time to be?Earth shifts her pole and Mushtari*-men
another falling star shall see:
? The Planet Jupiter.
Shall see it fall and fade from sight,
whence come, where gone no Thought can tell,��?Drink of yon mirage-stream and chase
the tinkling of the camel-bell!
VI
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.
What is the Truth? was askt of yore.
Reply all object Truth is one?As twain of halves aye makes a whole;
the moral Truth for all is none.
Ye scantly-learned Zahids learn
from Aflat?n and Arist?,*?While Truth is real like your good:
th�� Untrue, like ill, is real too;
? Plato and Aristotle.
As palace mirror��d in the stream,
as vapour mingled with the skies,?So weaves the brain of mortal man
the tangled web of Truth and Lies.
What see we here? Forms, nothing more!
Forms fill the brightest, strongest eye,?We know not substance; ��mid the shades
shadows ourselves we live and die.
��Faith mountains move�� I hear: I see
the practice of the world unheed?The foolish vaunt, the blatant boast
that serves our vanity to feed.
��Faith stands unmoved��; and why? Because
man��s silly fancies still remain,?And will remain till wiser man
the day-dreams of his youth disdain.
����Tis bless��d to believe��; you say:
The saying may be true enow?And it can add to Life a light:��
only remains to show us how.
E��en if I could I nould believe
your tales and fables stale and trite,?Irksome as twice-sung tune that tires
the dull��d ear of drowsy wight.
With God��s foreknowledge man��s free will!
what monster-growth of human brain,?What powers of light shall ever pierce
this puzzle dense with words inane?
Vainly the heart on Providence calls,
such aid to seek were hardly wise?For man must own the pitiless Law
that sways the globe and sevenfold skies.
��Be ye Good Boys, go seek for Heav��en,
come pay the priest that holds the key;��?So spake, and speaks, and aye shall speak
the last to enter Heaven,��he.
Are these the words for men to hear?
yet such the Church��s general tongue,?The horseleech-cry so strong so high
her heav��enward Psalms and Hymns among.
What? Faith a merit and a claim,
when with the brain ��tis born and bred??Go, fool, thy foolish way and dip
in holy water buri��d dead!
Yet follow not th�� unwisdom-path,
cleave not to this and that disclaim;?Believe in all that man believes;
here all and naught are both the same.
But is it so? How may we know?
Haply this Fate, this Law may be?A word, a sound, a breath; at most
the Zahid��s moonstruck theory.
Yes Truth may be, but ��tis not Here;
mankind must seek and find it There,?But Where nor I nor you can tell,
nor aught earth-mother ever bare.
Enough to think that Truth can be:
come sit we where the roses glow,?Indeed he knows not how to know
who knows not also how to ��unknow.
VII
Man