Jameel Al-Zahawi (1863-1936), 'My Honesty'
(translated from the Arabic by Sivar Qazaz and A.M. Levinson-LaBrosse)
I love honesty in words and deeds
And I hate the tendency toward hypocrisy.
I don’t deceive anyone about anything
Or harbor a desire to drink the foam: give me the milk!
And I am not for those who see goodness
In keeping the truth hidden
Nor for those who hold that religion stands
Up from God’s inspiration sent down to prophets
But I hold religions are creatively made
By wise men in possession of their minds.
Nor am I for those who live on the illusion
That the soul will ascend to heaven:
The earth swims in space
And what is heaven if not that space?
And I am not for those who take pride
In those praised for shedding blood
Nor for those who associate with the past -
They live looking back.
Nor am I for those who judge others
Except the judges presiding over the judiciary.
Nor for those who are all flattery to your face
And then unseen speak only hostility.
Nor am I for those who see lineage as all
Encompassing; it can’t raise creatures to any great height.
Nor am I for those who seek shelter from
The epidemic in humming prayers
Nor for a clan that prays and fasts
For the divine reward they were promised
Nor for those who hold that God rewards
Ablutions and prayers with a virgin
Nor for those who believe things perish,
That air forms from nothing;
Life is accumulation and death merely dispersion
Each separate existence is only a change in form.
And I am not for those who give great
Favor to men and not women
But the earth revolved until
This one and those became confused.