Title Page : THE KASDAH OF HJ ABD EL-YEZD SIR RICHARD BURTON, TRANSLATOR [1880] {Scanned , 2/2002}
Untitled : THE KASDAH OF HJ ABD EL-YEZD BY SIR RICHARD BURTON [1880] This was written by Sir Richard Burton under the pseudonym of Hj Abd El-Yezd after his return from Mecca in 1854. Observant readers will note that the Kasdah contains many references to 19th Century scientific and philosophical concepts...
Vi : VI ALL Faith is false, all Faith is true: Truth is the shattered mirror strown In myriad bits; while each believes his little bit the whole to own. What is the Truth? was askt of yore. Reply all object Truth is one As twain of halves aye makes a whole; the moral Truth for all is none. Ye...
Viii : VIII THERE is no Heav'en, there is no Hell; these be the dreams of baby minds; Tools of the wily Fetisheer, to 'fright the fools his cunning blinds. Learn from the mighty Spi'rits of old to set thy foot on Heav'en and Hell; In Life to find thy hell and heav'en as thou abuse or use it well. So...
Vii : VII MAN hath no Soul, a state of things, a no-thing still, a sound, a word Which so begets substantial thing that eye shall see what ear hath heard. Where was his Soul the savage beast which in primeval forests strayed, What shape had it, what dwelling-place, what part in nature's plan it played...
V : V THERE is no Good, there is no Bad; these be the whims of mortal will: What works me weal that call I "good," what harms and hurts I hold as "ill:" They change with place, they shift with race; and, in the veriest span of Time, Each Vice has won a Virtue's crown; all Good was banned as S...
Ii : II IN these drear wastes of sea-born land, these wilds where none may dwell but He, What visionary Pasts revive, what process of the Years we see: Gazing beyond the thin blue line that rims the far horizon-ring, Our sadden'd sight why haunt these ghosts, whence do these spectral shadows spring...
To The Reader : TO THE READER THE Translator has ventured to entitle a "Lay of the Higher Law" the following composition, which aims at being in advance of its time; and he has not feared the danger of collision with such unpleasant forms as the "Higher Culture." The principles which justify the name are...
Conclusion : CONCLUSION HERE the Hj ends his practical study of mankind. The image of Destiny playing with men as pieces is a view common amongst Easterns. His idea of wisdom is once more Pope's:-- And all our knowledge is ourselves to know. (Essay IV--398.) Regret, i.e., repentance, was one of the forty-two...
Iii : III. FIE, fie! you visionary things, ye motes that dance in sunny glow, Who base and build Eternities on briefest moment here below; Who pass through Life liked cagd birds, the captives of a despot will; Still wond'ring How and When and Why, and Whence and Whither, wond'ring still; Still wond'ring...
Ix : IX How then shall man so order life that when his tale of years is told, Like sated guest he wend his way; how shall his even tenour hold? Despite the Writ that stores the skull; despite the Table and the Pen; Maugre the Fate that plays us down, her board the world, her pieces men? How when...
Iv : IV WHAT Truths hath gleaned that Sage consumed by many a moon that waxt and waned? What Prophet-strain be his to sing? What hath his old Experience gained? There is no God, no man-made God; a bigger, stronger, crueller man; Black phantom of our baby-fears, ere Thought, the life of Life, beg...
I : THE KASDAH I THE hour is nigh; the waning Queen walks forth to rule the later night; Crown'd with the sparkle of a Star, and throned on orb of ashen light: The Wolf-tail sweeps the paling East to leave a deeper gloom behind, And Dawn uprears her shining head, sighing with semblance of a wind:...
Note Ii : NOTE II A FEW words concerning the Kasdah itself. Our Hj begins with a "mise-en-scne"; and takes leave of the Caravan setting out for Mecca. He sees the "Wolf's tail" ("Dum-i-gurg"), the {Greek "lykaugs"}, or wolf-gleam, the Diluculum, the Zodiacal dawn-light, the first faint brushes of white...
Note I : NOTES NOTE I HJ ABD ,THE MAN HJ ABD has been known to me for more years than I care to record. A native, it is believed, of Darbghird in the Yezd Province, he always preferred to style himself El-Hichmakni, a facetious "lackab" or surname, meaning "Of No-hall, Nowhere." He had travelled far...