| My soul was convulsed by the words that he spoke, | |
| every atom of my body trembled like quicksilver. | |
| Suddenly I saw, between the West and the East, | 395 |
| heaven immersed in a single cloud of light; | |
| out of that cloud an angel descended | |
| having two faces, one like fire, one like smoke— | |
| one dark as night, the other bright as a meteor, | |
| the eyes of one watchful, the other’s eyes asleep. | 400 |
| The hues of his wings were of crimson and gold, | |
| emerald and silver, azure and lapis-lazuli; | |
| his temper had the fleetness even of a phantom, | |
| he sped from earth to the Milky Way in an instant; | |
| every moment he was seized by another desire, | 405 |
| to spread his wings in yet another sky. | |
| He said, ‘I am Zarvan, I am the world-subduer, | |
| alike hidden from sight and manifest am I. | |
| Every plan is bound up with my determining; | |
| voiced and voiceless-all alike are my prey. | 410 |
| Through me the bud swells upon the branch, | |
| through me the birdie bewails in the nest; | |
| through my flight the seed becomes a stalk, | |
| through my effluence every parting turns to union. | |
| I pronounce both reproach and exhortation; | 415 |
| I render athirst, that I may offer wine. | |
| I am life, I am death, I am resurrection, | |
| I am the Judgment, Hell, Heaven and Houri. | |
| Man and angel are both in bondage to me, | |
| this transitory world is my own child; | 420 |
| I am every rose that you pluck from the branch, | |
| I am the matrix of every thing that you see. | |
| This world is a prisoner in my talisman, | |
| every moment it ages through my breath. | |
| But he who has in his heart I have a time with God, | 425 |
| that doughty hero has broken my talisman; | |
| if you wish that I should not be in the midst, | |
| recite from the depths of your soul I have a time with God.’ | |
| I know not what it was that was in his glance, | |
| it snatched away from my sight this ancient world; | 430 |
| either my sight opened on another world | |
| or this same world took on another form. | |
| I died in the universe of colour and scent, | |
| I was born in a world without tumult and clamour; | |
| my thread snapped from that ancient world, | 435 |
| a whole new world came into my hands. | |
| My soul trembled at the loss of a world | |
| until another world blossomed out of my dust; | |
| my body became nimbler, my soul more adventurous. | |
| the eye of my heart was keener and more wakeful; | 440 |
| veiled things became manifest uncurtained, | |
| the melody of the stars reached my cars. |