THE MARTIAN DAMSEL WHO CLAIMED TO BE A PROPHETESS

We passed by thousands of streets and mansions;
on the edge of the city was a broad square
and in that square a swarm of men and women,
amidst them a woman with the stature of a tall pomegranate-tree.
Her face was radiant, but without the light of the soul, 2025
as if its meaning were too hard to express;
her speech lacked fire, her eyes lacked tears,
not intimate with the joy of desire:
her breast was void of the ardour of youth,
blind and unreceptive to images her mirror; 2030
she knew nothing of love and the laws of love,
she was a sparrow spurned by the hawk of love.
That sage who knew all subtleties spoke to us:
‘This damsel is not of the Martians;
simple and free of guile, without artifice, 2035
Farzmarz kidnapped her from the Franks
and made her expert in the craft of prophethood,
then let her loose upon this world,
She declared, "I have come down from heaven;
my message is the final message of time." 2040
She speaks of the status of man and woman,
she speaks more openly of the secrets of the body.
The destiny of life in this end of time
I will now recount in the language of earthlings.’