Chapter from the Bible
By Munir Mezyed


(1)


Whosoever claims
To know the evident truth
Lies...
Whosoever emulates light
Shall cut Hydra’s head,
Casting it into the lake of fire.

(2)

She prays,
Repeating constantly,
Oh Allah, Allah!
Has not the time come yet
For the dragon to vomit the sun…?!

(3)

Definitely,
The sun will pierce through...
No harm to wait for a while.
The suckling buds
Never get bored of waiting,
Waiting for the milk of the sky...

(4)

A woman copulating the wind,
She casts me
Into the heart of the storm.
My fate is to live blind,
Sand flung into the unknown,
Remaining alone,
Wondering when my end will come.

(5)


She remains my mellow wine
I desire
When my mood
Needs to be modified...

(6)

A chalice of mellow wine,
With a little romance
And a wild gypsy's dance
Would make the finest elixir...

(7)

I desire thee
Like a rose desiring the dew
So blame me not,
If I saddle the horses of war...!

(8)

I have come not but to free
The sparrows of poetry
From the cages of swindlers
And imposters...

(9)

God mocks at me
Whenever I want to tame
The horses of fate.

(10)

Enough!
I abominate the snowy tales,
Tales of the foolish
Whose brains are decayed with opium…

(11)

From trembles of the spirit,
And eagerness of the flesh,
From Heaven’s whisperings to the earth,
And Water’s murmur to the stones and sand,
From the wailing women’s tears,
And the labors’ sweat,
From the children’s grins,
And the lovers’ kisses,
My poems are begotten...
They become tobacco for the rebels
Caviare for the poor.

(12)

Oh, my child
This poem revealed unto me the prophecy:
God’s sovereignty will stand forth
Visible unto me…
For, lo! I am the spirit that came from God’s breath…
It will neither perish nor taste death…
It will ascend unto him on a day
And will remain in His eternal sway...


(13)


By the word and what they inscribe!
They are impostors;
Their myths and tales
Are fraught with blood and smoke..

(14)

Truly, truly
I say:
The sun is in the boat
Sailing in the spirit
Between two shadows...
The phony light was burnt.
Thus I recite the verses of light.

(15)

Have pity on me!
I am not a Son of God to be crucified
To redeem sins...
Wait!
So let it be if my blood were
The oil of your lamps...!

(16)

From the wood of blood
I candled a fire
As it shed its light,
The galaxy collapsed
On the forehead of the night...

(17)

Prepare ye a way,
A way where I can light my candle,
Or let me kill myself
And release you from my worry.
I could no longer bear
Darkness covering my soul.
Surely I shall depart,
My sins and vision accompanying me,
I fear what I fear!
I am in complete ignorance
Of what awaits me.

(18)

I cry,
How hard is darkness!
My candle,
My candle is exceeding sorrowful
Even unto death.
No one is concerned with its light.
No one regards the burning.
Straight is the gate and narrow is the way
Which leads into life
And few there be that find it.

(19)

Prepare ye the way for this light,
The light that emanates from the depths
Of the spirit
So darkness will not heap on
And the spirit will not be blind,
Floating without guidance,
Remaining in this position
Between death and birth.

(20)

Life is a lamp
And love is but an illumination of the lamp.
I have come with the torch of humanity
He whose heart is touched and
Encounters its warmth,
Let him set its fire.

(21)

Through this gloomy murk
I stroll
Carrying my cross
Whilst my reed,
And harp,
My house key in Jerusalem,
And mother’s sad face
Accompany me...
I sing,
In spite of the bleed...

(22)

Woe unto you
The rich.
Ye gained your comfort.
Produce fruits befitting repentance:
Feed ye the poor
Lest ye turn them into thieves.

(23)

Alive,
Dead in their world,
Scourged by the whip of poverty.
Humiliation metamorphosed them into
Ghostly images rising from the mold...
Misery bleeds in their eyes...
They appeal for death.
Feeling pity for their souls,
I desire death more than they do.

(24)

Oh my brethren!
Afraid of being hated by my tomb,
I recommend you not to bury me.

(25)

Drawing down the curtains of worry,
I slumber,
I slumber in the gardens of poetry,
Dreaming of being in the upper heaven...

(26)

Through window of dream
Inspired by God
I behold the unseen unfolding,
Revealing my fate unto me.

(27)

Oh, my Father!
I saw in my dream
I was shepherding the stars
When I heard a voice
Coming from heaven saying,
Come and I will teach thee
How to concoct verses.
I shall send thee unto the Earth
And make thee a poet.
And thus,
According to thy dream
Shall thy Lord choose thee
And teach thee the interpretation of
Dark sayings,
And He shall accomplish
His favor upon thee.

(28)

Truly, truly
I say:
My verses were kept hidden
On the sacred wall
Inscribed for a prophet
Who shall come from the womb of heaven.

(29)

I am a breath from the Holy Ghost
Conceived in the womb of virgin star.
Behold,
When the angel of the Lord appears unto her
In dream saying,
“Arise! Take the young child
And cast him down to the earth.
Fear not,
Nor be afflicted...
Rejoice!
We will restore him unto you
For we appoint him a poet
To begin reciting the new divine verses”.

(30)

As I recite the divine verses
The Holy Ghost dwells in the soul.
A transcendent pain,
Imperatively,
Obsesses me,
Intermingles in the spirit,
Poesy...

(31)

How hard is my sorrow!
An afflicted pain inherited my heart,
Stinging the soul.
I feel pity for my soul,
And my soul feels pity for me.

(32)

Cursed are you!
The tree, the woman,
And the serpent are one!
We have come not
But to be afflicted with pain
And sorrow.
The tragedy! The tragedy!
We are too happy to nourish it.
What is the use to live in a life
That moves toward death...?!

(33)

I contemplate the unseen
Baffled and amazed.
Behold, I was the tomb
And the world was my coffin.

(34)

Woe unto us!
Satan is the captain of our vessels,
The vessels are sinking,
Drowning in the sea of our sins,
Drifting toward Hell...

(35)

Between my cursed ideas and madness
I behold naught but wandering
I flee seeking refuge,
Yelling:
How hard is darkness!

(36)

Ah! How hard is my grief
Afflicted with sorrowful pain!
Tomorrow the sparrows will cry,
The lilies will die,
Nymphs will halt their singing.
I want to say farewell to the lilies
And print a kiss
Upon the lips of the poem
And depart...

(37)

These metaphor visions reveal unto me:
When the earthly shell of the flesh
Cracks and collapses,
I will ascend to God’s sovereignty,
Transfigured
A spirit
Celebrating the first day of Eternity...
Thus the shadow from the body wants to part;
The flesh from the soul wants to separate,
So I want now to depart in peace.

(38)

Oh my Father,
Pardon me,
Forgive me,
If I renounce your ancestors
And reproach all the gods
Whom you worship.

(39)

Christ reincarnates me in love chants.
I build temples for love,
Temples where my verses are chanted.
Build,
Build ye the temples of love.
Let love be a belief,
Unite water and fire.

(40)

Oh ye gods of heaven
Let me gaze at the mirror
And sail in heights
So I may behold my invisible face
And illusion may admit me into the eternal life
Where I will abide in serenity with the angels.

(41)

Narcissist mirrors dance in my soul.
Their bells ring in my heart.
There is a fact that concerns me,
The soul thirsts
For the nectar of madness
That emanates from the rose of love
The spirit is confound in vanity,
Appealing for thee.

(42)

Alas!
You have sold your soul
To the devil
And spent your Life
In interpretation of false vision
And remained alone
Chewing bitterness and grief,
Whilst you are besieged by death
Ice and fire.

(43)

Within me
Fire...
Within me
A tendency toward the sea...
I drown,
Lost between fire and fire.

(44)

As God’s rain
Revives the dead land,
So an inspired poesy
Is begotten from
The flood of creation
To awaken in time of drought.

(45)

An ever green branch,
Remnants of departing spring,
I pave my way to the soul's gardens
Where I pluck the branch,
And on the peak of a mount
I plant it...

(46)

On the Mounts of Night,
I was chasing a legendary dream
Recurring since childhood.
Digging, I found the magic cave
Filled with fabled paintings
And beheld the spirit waiting for me
Revealing unto me the secret.

(47)

Imperatively
Accompanying me,
The color of bleeding heart.
Whenever I want,
The painting colors me
And plants the kiss of grievance
Upon the face of the wound
That is still alive,
The confusion takes me
To a distant space.

(48)

When in dreams,
I am inspired
To enter the magic vine,
I behold what I behold.
My verses are fruits
Befitting prophecy.

(49)

My verses will always
Remain faithful unto me
When I go my way,
Visiting me
Whilst I rest in Peace
Under an olive tree.

(50)

In my heart
Grow the eternal psalms...
Heap of melodies
The spirit never heard.

(51)

From the poet’s mouth
Springs forth language
And from language
Comes all things...!

(52)

I recite verses befitting
The dreaming gods.
Thus I hear Baudelaire saying,
The world is no longer dull and small.

(53)

Amazing!
Even gods,
From the hyper love,
Suffer....

(54)

I accepted the challenge..
I burned the vessels
And into her sea,
I dove.

(55)

It is the lust
That always plants
The thorn of death
In our souls...
Whilst Poem persists to be
The nectar of madness.

(56)

A lover,
I travel in the anxiety of pain
Where Poem plants me...

(57)


Let me burn in the fire of ecstasy
Till the poem is begotten
From the ashes of insanity...

(58)

For this terror
That strikes me
I write...!

(59)


What a grief!
It never leaves me.
Whenever it grows older
It burns the phoenix's blood…

(60)

In a moment of theosophy
The heavenly meadow appeared to me.
I beheld the phoenix commit the sun
To soul orbit,
And I transmuted the two lions.
Thus the word was revealed
And the Earth plunged into deep serenity.
Tell not thy vision
Lest they devise some plot against thee,
Stone thee like an adulterer,
Accuse thee of blasphemy
And insanity,
For the devil is
A professed enemy unto man.

(61)

O, men of intellect,
Hear and heed
The verse that I will read.
When the moon dies
All the devils rise
Coming out of the Hades.


(62)

Oh, Lord!
Let not the moon die
For he will not die
Alone.
But if he hath to die,
Let his radiant face remain in the sky,
A celestial sign of undying faith.

(63)

Oh, Lord!
Let not the fear of death overcome me
I fear no one but thee.
“Oh, Lord! If it be possible,
Let this cup pass for me
Not as I will, but as thou will it.”

(64

Oh, Lord!
“If this cup may not pass away from me,
I drink it.
Thy will be done.”
The spirit, indeed, is willing
But the flesh is weak.

(65)

“Eloi, Eloi, Lama sabach thani?”
In loving thee,
I adore,
Always ready to give up the soul
For the sake of thee.

(66)

My soul is escaping from me
Moving forward rapidly
Crossing the seven heavens
Without hesitation...
I sail to the shore
Where God emerges from his dwelling
Stretching his hand.
He picks up the ascending spirits
That passed the place of darkness
Purified from the hanging sins,
Becoming more transparent than the shadow,
To reunite with the Lord for eternity
Pleased with their reward,
And well pleasing unto God.

(67)

Inevitably
I shall ascend into heaven
Transfigured in the mirrors of vision
A holy ghost
Revealing the unseen....
Now I go my way
And none of you
Asks me whither go you.
I have said these things unto you,
Sorrow has filled your heart
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth
I am the lover, the poet and the harpist...

(68)

When I contemplate the creation,
I believe in Allah the almighty.
When I behold beauty,
I believe in art.
When I dream of love,
I believe in poesy.
But when I feel happy and content,
I believe in virtue.

(69)

In a vivid dream
I beheld my tomb a shrine
Near a small stream
Where sparrows go on a pilgrimage...
And my verses
Lilies
Encircling
The shrine,
Sucking
From the moon's breast
Dreaming of butterflies…

(70)

Read!
Read ye my books.
You will come to know
I am not a son of one of yours
And I have lived amongst you
A rose of blood....