Sarguzasht-e-Adam

The Saga of Man

Come, hear from me the story of my exile’s way; The tale of the First Covenant I let fall away.

My spirit found no rest in Paradise’s domain, Once the fiery cup of consciousness I chose to drain.

For cosmic truth I kept a burning, endless quest; The highest reach of soaring thought I then expressed.

With such a restless nature, loving change, was I endowed, Beneath the sky, no lasting peace have I allowed.

At times, from the sanctum, stone idols I would expel, At times, new gods within its holy walls I made to dwell.

At times, to Sinai, in my desire to speak, I flew, The Light Eternal in my sleeve I hid from view.

At times, upon the Cross, by my own kin I was spurned, Then leaving earth, to heaven’s heights my soul returned.

At times, in Hira’s Cave for many years I stayed, The final cup of truth to all the world I freely gave.

In India, I arrived and sang the hymns divine, At times, the ancient land of Greece I chose as mine.

And when the land of India would not heed my sound, In China and Japan, new homelands I then found.

At times, from particles, a universe I wrought, Against the meaning that the men of faith had taught.

I stained a hundred different lands with blood-red dye, The war of faith and reason I let fly.

When I could not yet grasp the truth the stars arrayed, In that same thought, through endless nights I watched and stayed.

The drawn swords of the Church could not inspire my fear, The truth of Earth’s own turning I made clear.

The secret law of gravity I laid quite bare, The lens of my far-seeing mind I focused there.

The restless lightning and the sun’s own rays I caught, This earth into a rival of Paradise I wrought.

But ah! The secret of existence was not revealed, Though with my mind, the world itself I forced to yield.

But when my eye that worships form at last was opened wide, I found that in my own heart’s house He did reside.