By Avediq Isahakian
Translated by Tatul Sonentz
(Note: Read the first surah here, and the fourth surah here.)
Fifth Surah
And the caravan, confidently breaking through the jinns’ ferocious twister-dance’s spells,
Straight and fearless, kept forging onwards in rhythm with the tinkling of its disturbed bells.
“What really is a companion…?” continued deriding Abu Mahari, with wrath and ill intent,
“I fed vile snakes in my gracious lap; spread your wings my caravan, my most intimate friend!
“And wherever you go, go the same way and keep going, heed no road marks—none at all!
My upright road, lead me onward, misplace me, let me snap and agonize unbeknownst to all.
“And what have we left behind? What is back there, to lure us back again with an illusion?
Glory? Treasure? Privileges and power…? Fly! Fly farther and farther away from all intrusion!
“And what, pray, is glory? Today, men may raise you way, way above all the highest roofs,
Tomorrow, the same men will drag you down to the ground, to be trampled under hoofs.
“And what are honors bestowed by men—the mere result of lure of gold, or fear of disdain.
The minute you slip, dust under your sandals becomes a big man, treating you as a villain!
“And what is a treasure, with which the buffoon retains men—even genius, and affection?
None other, than the drained blood of multitudes, flesh of the dead, tears of the orphan.
“I despise the vulgar rabble, it is the great witless, and the very element of wickedness,
Oppressor of spirit, anchor of oppression, and a monumental monster of mindlessness.
“What is society? An enemy army, and the person therein, a slave with chains beyond sight!
When—if ever—has it tolerated a soaring soul, or a majestic thought’s unfettered flight?
“A ghastly gathering, a strangling noose; for all that it’s worth—a horrendous, stinging crop,
A pair of enormous shears that shear one and all in the very same manner, swift, non-stop!
“What is law? Ordained by humans, that merciless sword of uncouth wielders of power
Hanging over powerless heads, beheading the humble, guarding the potent now and ever.
“I say, seven times seven, I detest, abhor authority—that devouring ogre of generations,
Greedy usurer, insatiable scrounger, ever concocting wars and promoting destruction.
“And I curse the powers that be, with their thousand claws of a horrid pack of hyenas,
Each step—a blood-thirsty scythe mowing down, in blind fury, both young and hoary.
“Stupid people, slavish, spineless—who in hell gave to the likes of them swords and spears?
Who gave them the right to mete out vengeance, to rule, to slay and slaughter their peers?
“Take me hence, caravan, and hand me to vipers, bury my shattered heart beneath the sands.
Take me! Save me from authority; set me free from under its hideous canopy’s strands.”
Frenzied bolts of flashing lightning were tearing apart dark, menacing clouds’ columns,
And, in stunning speed, smashed to smithereens against the slopes of distant mountains.
And the mighty gales rumbled; trembling, palm tree and cypress clattered, cracking
As the caravan in a hurry, ran at great speed, galloping, sprinting in a mad dash, flying…
It tried to sprint and soar in its flight, rushing and raising vast clouds of dust on its path,
As if it ran away from the frightful fist of the powers, from their rancorous wrath…
End of the Fifth Surah
Tatul Sonentz-Papazian
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