!ہارون، اسم شوما عجیب است
شوما اجتماعیت را بر افتراق
شوما بر کوہ (طور) عدول حکمی برتر خود کردید
!بلا شبعہ شوما خضر ایست توندارد روح ندارد
Translation from Persian:
O Aaron, irony is thy name! You upheld unity, not dissent, And defied your brother at the Mount. Indeed you are Khizr* in the flesh!
This ‘Ode to Aaron’, in English blank verse, came to me when I was reaching the end of writing Systems in late 2011. Just as the Peace Man is representative of justice, and Hitoshi of liberty, my other lead character Aaron Lloyd represents the unity principle – only he shares it with his Biblical namesake.
Dr. Shabbir Ahmed of Florida (of QXP fame) kindly turned the English into Persian for me not long ago. I planned to put this up at the main section of my site, but couldn’t find a place for it.
So I decided to post it here today, since I needed an excuse to test post again anyway.
Yes, that’s right. This is just another test post. 😀 But who wants to read a post that just says, ‘test’?
* Khizr is the name that Muslims have given to the mysterious stranger in the Quran (verses 18:65-82). The stranger shows Moses a series of strange events, where all is not as it seems. Moses’s impatient response to these events is actually a prelude to what he later experiences at Mount Sinai, when he is astonished to find that Aaron has allowed the Israelites to resume their idol-worship of the calf during Moses’ absence. Moses confronts his brother; and Aaron explains is that he let the Israelites do as they wished only in order to avoid a division or a rebellion amongst them.
Postscript 18 May 2014: Since writing this post, I have re-ordered the lines to read better … and also, I have learned that the above Persian is a bad translation. Apologies to readers of Persian!
Greetings Saleena,
*I* like to read test posts :). Thank you for this one about Khwaja Khizr.
All good wishes,
robert
lol! Thanks, Robert.
Unity! Your Ode to Aaron is lovely in English, but beautful to “see” in Persian. I, too, like your test post.
Thanks, Margaret! I agree with you on the beauty of Persian – there is something about Arabic script that adds an air of the exotic to it.