IS THE LORD’S
| The history of man throughout East and West | |
| is a tale of wars, battles, revolts, for ‘land’; | |
| one bride there is, and we are all her husbands, | 1275 |
| that enchantress is without all and with all withal. | |
| Her blandishments are nothing but guile and trickery, | |
| she belongs neither to you nor to me either. | |
| These stones and rocks have nothing in common with you; | |
| they are the stuff of stillness, you are on a journey. | 1280 |
| How can the sleeper and the wakeful mix together? | |
| What has the planet to do with the fixed star? | |
| God has called the earth simply our ‘enjoyment’, | |
| this valueless ‘enjoyment’ is gratis, gratis. | |
| You landowner, take a wise hint from me: | 1285 |
| take from the land your food and grave, but take it not. | |
| How long will its company last? You are, it is not; | |
| you are a living being, it is a lifeless show. | |
| You are an eagle, therefore get you about the skies, | |
| open your wings and pinions, rise clear of the earth. | 1290 |
| ‘The Earth is the Lord’s’: the inward meaning is plain, | |
| and he who sees not this plain is an infidel. | |
| I do not say, desert utterly dwelling and lane; | |
| this world of colour and scent is your empery— | |
| grain by grain gather the jewels from its soil, | 1295 |
| falcon-like seize your prey out of its skies, | |
| smite your axe against its mountain-ranges, | |
| take light from your self and set it all afire. | |
| Have nothing to do with the ancient ways of Azar | |
| but hew out a new world to your own desire! | 1300 |
| Yield not your heart to colour and scent, dwelling and lane; | |
| the heart is His sanctuary, yield it only to Him. | |
| Death without substance, without tomb and winding-sheet | |
| is to lose oneself in riches, children, wife; | |
| but he who has the words ‘One God’ by heart | 1305 |
| can lose within himself a world entire. | |
| What is the poverty of hunger, dancing, nakedness? | |
| Poverty is true kingship; what is monkery? |