Welcome to F.I.E.L.D.- the First Ismaili Electronic Library and Database.

11. Encore

Eloquent PROOF, open your book of poems or from the point

of your pen shower forth your pearls of speech.

Your verses are perhaps too long, too many - but

since I find them

sweet and instructive, I cannot have enough of them!

I ll write a panegyric on a king whose gifts are precious

even if he gives me so many of them I can t stagger away

under their weight! So refresh those words growth hoary,

give new life to old saws, rain down a cloud of gems

and ancient earth in Springtime. This book

which at first looked too heavy, has become a joy

for me, just as an old shirt looks elegant again

when it comes back fresh from the laundry.

Poems from a heart-full of knowledge must be sweet

as spring-water poured from clean clay jug.

What is the spice of speech? Meaning and metaphor -

and yours is a cook s garden of poetic herbs.

Repetitive? Yes, but one need not fear repetition

in poetry which can only improve the more we read.

God seasons the pot of earth with tastes, smells, colours -

apples, oranges, walnuts, quince and pomegranate;

the grapes of the vine never clog your palate

even if they taste the same as last year s or

the year before. To the intelligent reader

wisdom and knowledge are the seeds of literature;

come, Sage, sow these seeds in my heart,

leave behind you a harvest of verse which will keep

your memory fresh (on its own level) as that

of the Prophet himself. Was it not eloquence

which spread his Faith to Earth s four corners,

was it not by his words he raised himself

on Seventh Heaven?

Earth s creatures may be

conquered by Wisdom only because the Almighty Lord,

the Subduer, is also the All-Wise. Contemplate

your body, see the soul that hides within it:

how can it be, when this too too solid flesh

sinks to sleep, that something remains awake,

seeing, speaking, aware? This dead carrion lives

only by a magic jewel, the amulet of gnosis:

shame and speech, praise and blame belong to it alone,

and when it departs, your body s no more than a corpse

why do you value skin and bones, and despise the true

and only Lord of your body? You consort with slaves

but have not met the master; know both

as they are in REALITY, for in this knowledge

(all wisemen agree) all wisdom resides.

Old fellow, if you neglect your better half,

don t complain if wisemen refuse you the

title of MAN. Body ad soul are comrades

in knowledge and action, but you have neglected

the affairs of the older and better of the two.

You treat your soul as if it were a stranger,

your body a suspicious and inhospitable

town-dweller; the wanders the streets unhoused,

unfed. Is this the custom of the noble host?

How can you train your soul if it remains

unknown to you? Make its acquaintance,

treat it well; your soul goes naked while

your body is cosseted in silks and furs. Shame!

What a state of affairs! Weave a cloak

with meaning as warp and words as weft,

for the soul must clothed in the texture

of Wisdom. Wisdom is a citadel, just as

the Prophet was acity of knowledge and Ali

its worthyGate (this is a sound tradition,

recorded by honest men). The knowledge and advice

which have issued forth from this Gate

are too exalted even to be calledknowledge andadvice ;

they bear the same relation to the ordinary sense

of these words as a rose to a thorn.

If you find Wisdom something mean and hateful, no wonder!

Even the camel (gourmet of thorns) refuses to eat

your wormy flower. I offer you a clue, a way

to that House of Wisdom; keep it secret, guard it

from the frivolous. If you find the Gate and

enter the palace, you escape forever this

caravan of demons, you will learn at least

why the cosmic dance was begun, and what

shall be the end of its monotonous revolutions.

The Architect of the galactic dome has brought you

here for a certain task - why do you shun it?

Feed your soul till it s fat on wisdom -

don t let it end its prison days lean

as a boneyard cur. Everything s found is its

proper place - to reach elsewhere is to make

unnecessary trouble. The world cotains only

fraud and deceit; if you want Wisdom, listen to me

and seek it in religion. This upturned bowl,

this sky under which you sit (as you imagine)

so safe and secure, is really as ocean, about

to fall on your head. Watch out! God has

chained you up in this cave only to protect you

from Satan s marauding band - you will never

realise how lucky you are till a day comes

which is a thousand times worse. The world

is a bazar where you must shop as if

for an endless journey, before you return

to your empty house - for perhaps you may

fall ill, and never find the market again.

O noble reader, act according to my words,

for in the great BALANCE, your deeds

must measure up to what you say.


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