ZARVAN: THE SPIRIT OF TIME AND SPACE, CONDUCTS THE TRAVELLER ON HIS JOURNEY TO THE SUPERNAL WORLD
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, | |
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. | |
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, | |
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. | |
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; | |
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; | |
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, | |
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; | |
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, | |
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; | |
veiled things became manifest uncurtained, | |
the melody of the stars reached my cars. |
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