Sodom. Poem II
And the Lord said, Because the cry of
Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because
their sin is very grievous.
Genesis 18:20
The bell in vain is crying, why?
The vineyard withered, died;
And voices hoarse from underneath
Are smudging walls; and tolls in bleak
Emptiness the bell, and felt
Already putrid smell...
"I snatched
Their hearts..." A mire said,
"Thy feed will be the filthy dregs..."
And tongues appeared speaking lies,
And falsehood raised the flag of pride;
But wrathful bell the revel broke,
"Upon ye woe!"
ويقال: إنّ العرشَ يهتزّ ويغضبُ الرّبُّ تعالى
لثلاثة أعمال: لقتلِ النّفس بغيرِ نفس،
وإتيانِ الذَّكَرِ الذَّكرَ، وركوبِ الأنثى الأنثى.
وفي خبر: لو اغتسل الّلوطى بالبحار
لم يطهِّره إلا التوبة
'Tis said: The throne is shuddering, and Lord,
exalted is He, is raging at three kinds of crimes:
the murder, the coition of man with a man,
and woman with a woman.
And in tradition: If a sodomite will wash
himself in the sea, this will not
make him pure. Only the repentance will do.
Al-Makki
And even as they refused to have
God in their knowledge, God gave them
up unto a reprobate mind, to do
those things which are not fitting.
Romans 1:28
Somewhere their forsaken halfs
Are shedding tears in the dark,
In this, or in another plane
They sob, "All is in vain..."
وقال بعضهم: لا تُذنبْ، فإن كان لا بُدَّ
فلا تحملْ غيرَك على الذنب فتكسب ذَنبين
Said one of them: Do not sin,
or if you do, at least
don't drag others down to sin, -
lest it be two sins upon thee.
Al-Makki
October 2020
Abu Talib Al-Makki, The Sustenance of Hearts 2
قوت القلوب في معاملة المحبوب
Translation from Arabic
by Denis Bezmelnitsin
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