THE GOLDEN ROAD TO SAMARKAND

PROEM
Sweet to ride forth at evening from the wells,
When shadows pass gigantic on the sand,
And softly through the silence beat the bells,
Along the Golden Road to Samarkand.
We travel not for trafficking alone;
By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:
For love of knowing what should not be known,
We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.
James Elroy Flecker
FROM THE GOLDEN ROAD TO SAMARKAND

We're carted in a cosy caravan of dreams,
Driving fast across vast desert waste.
Nothing we see is exactly as it seems,
From mirage to death we race in reckless haste.
The Master Sheikh cries "wake up you sleepy one,
Within you shines the Great Almighty Sun!".

A boy had cause to cross that golden sand,
To find his fond father in Samarkand.
His journey was beset by many trials,
The brave lad trekked for miles and miles.
He trudged on when all seemed sadly lost,
He persisted regardless of all human cost.
Grace came in camel shape, the beast had strayed,
So back to his father, his way was safely made!
The fierce blazing heat of noon-day Sun,
Afflicts each caravan on its lonely way.
The camels yearn for water, but there is none,
Until they reach some oasis, one blessed day.

The Sheikh cries "The Sun is like God's will,
Driving your caravan across the golden sand;
Water's like Real Truth, which you need to fill
Your heart, and cut your knot of bondage band!"

A traveller traversed across that desert plane,
Soon he became thirsty from the blazing heat,
He prayed for water from a fall of rain,
To save his life, his journey then complete.
He glimpsed an oasis, 'twas a mirage it seems,
Such is our wasted life, a caravan of dreams!
The Sheikh calls "come to my tavern, there drink
The ecstatic ruby wine of love divine!
Enquire into who's that one who thinks?
Soon you'll find your inner Sun sublime,
That lights your mind of wandering dreams,
And makes you see a world that only seems
As Real, when its all a false delusion;
That's the very root of mind's illusion!"

A pilgrim knocked hard at the tavern door,
Alas he found it locked and firmly closed.
No answer came although he did implore
The Sheikh to help in what he then proposed.
Then he heard a voice within the tavern cry,
"My son, to ego mind, you first must die!"
The One Eternal Sheikh is our blessed Self,
Not treacherous, perverted monkey mind,
Like some diabolic demonic elf,
It flits from every tree to tree it finds.

So hearken to the wisdom of one's Master Sheikh,
As he teaches freedom and the way to wake.
The Sheikh in the desert on the golden way
Frees us from the bleak jail of every day.

A man met his Master one blessed day,
And enquired, "how free myself from 'mind'?"
The Master said "if you turn within my way,
In search of your own false self you'll surely find,
The real freedom you so urgently desire,
Be reborn again in God's great sacred fire!"

Alan Jacobs