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TOUR OF THE CITY OF MARGHADIN
| Marghadin and those lofty edifices— | 1925 |
| what can I say of that noble city? | |
| Its inhabitants sweet of speech as honey, | |
| comely their faces, gentle their manners, simple their apparel, | |
| their thoughts innocent of the burning fever of gain, | |
| they were intimate with the secrets of the sun’s alchemy; | 1930 |
| who so of them desires silver or gold gathers it from light, | |
| even as we gather salt from the briny sea. | |
| The aim of science and art there is service, | |
| no one weighs work done against gold; | |
| no one is even acquainted with dinars and dirhams, | 1935 |
| these idols may not enter the sanctuary. | |
| The demon of the machine has no power over nature, | |
| the skies are not blackened by smoke; | |
| the lamp of the hard-toiling farmer is always bright, | |
| he is secure from the plundering of the landlords, | 1940 |
| his tillage is not a struggle for water, | |
| his harvest is his own, no other shares in it. | |
| In that world there are no armies, no squadrons, | |
| none gains his livelihood by killing and murder; | |
| In Marghadin no pen wins lustre | 1945 |
| from inscribing and disseminating lies; | |
| in the market-places there is no clamour of the workless, | |
| no whining of beggars afflicts the car. |
The Martian
Sage
| No one here is a mendicant or destitute, | |
| slave and master, ruler and ruled, here are none. | 1950 |
Zinda-Rud
| Mendicant and destitute are so by God’s decree, |
| by God’s decree ruler and ruled; |
| none but God is the creator of destiny |
| and against destiny human design is powerless. |
The Martian
Sage
| If your heart bleeds on account of one destiny, | 1955 |
| petition God to decree another destiny; | |
| if you pray for a new destiny, that is lawful, | |
| seeing that God’s destinies are infinite. | |
| Earthlings have gambled away the coin of selfhood, | |
| not comprehending the subtle meaning of destiny; | 1960 |
| its subtlety is contained in a single phrase— | |
| ‘If you transform yourself, it too will be transformed.’ | |
| Be dust, and fate will give you the winds; | |
| be a stone, and it will hurl you against glass. | |
| Are you a dew-drop? Your destiny is to perish; | 1965 |
| are you an ocean? Your destiny is to endure. | |
| Every moment you are fashioning new Lats and Manats; | |
| inconstant one, do you look for constancy from idols? | |
| So long as your faith is to accord not with your self | |
| the world of your thoughts is your prison; | 1670 |
| toil without treasure-such is destiny; | |
| treasure without toil-such is destiny! | |
| If this is the foundation of faith, ignorant fellow, | |
| then the needy will become still more in need. | |
| Woe to that religion which lulls you to sleep | 1975 |
| and still holds you in sleep profound! | |
| Is this religion, or magic and enchantment? | |
| Is this religion, or a grain of opium? | |
| Do you know whence comes the penetrating nature, | |
| whence came this houri into your tenement of clay? | 1980 |
| Do you know whence comes the sages’ power of thought, | |
| whence the potency of prayer in God’s interlocutors? | |
| Do you know whence came this heart, and its visitations, | |
| whence these arts, these miracles? | |
| Do you have fire of speech? That comes not from you; | 1985 |
| do you have flame of action? That comes not from you. | |
| All this is an overflow of the springtime of nature, | |
| nature which derives from nature’s Creator. | |
| What is life? A mine of gems; | |
| you are the trustee, its owner is Another. | 1990 |
| A radiant nature glorifies the man of God, | |
| to serve all God’s creatures, that is his aim— | |
| Service belongs to the wont and way of prophethood; | |
| to seek a reward for service is mere commerce. | |
| Even so this wind, earth, cloud, field, | 1995 |
| orchard, meadow, palace, street, stones, bricks— | |
| you who say, ‘Our property is of ourselves’, | |
| ignorant one, all this belongs to God. | |
| If you regard God’s earth as your own, | |
| then what means the verse, Work not corruption? | 2000 |
| Adam’s sons have given their hearts to Iblis, | |
| and from Iblis I have seen only corruption. | |
| None should convert a trust to his own use; | |
| blessed is he who renders God’s property up to God. | |
| You have carried off what does not belong to you; | 2005 |
| my soul sorrows for so unworthy a deed. | |
| If you own a thing, that is meet and right, | |
| but if you do not, say yourself, how is that proper? | |
| Return to God the property of God | |
| so that you may loose the knot of your involvement; | 2010 |
| for why is there poverty and want under heaven’s arch? | |
| Because you say what is the Lord’s belongs to you. | |
| The man who has not leaped forth from water and clay | |
| has shattered his own glass with his own stone. | |
| You who cannot tell goal from path, | 2015 |
| the value of every thing is measured by the regard. | |
| So long as the pearl is your property, it is a pearl, | |
| otherwise it is a pebble, worth less than a farthing. | |
| View the world otherwise, and it will become other, | |
| this earth and heaven will be transformed. | 2020 |
