Ibn-e-Insha’s article entitled “Some of the Ages [in the degradation] of [mankind’s] History” (p. 27, circa 1970); translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.
(Stone…)
Stones in the pathway to progress,
Stones within political parties,
Stones within people’s hearts,
Stonewalling within mausoleums,
Stones directed at revolutionary frenzies,
Stones, only stones!
This is indeed a Stone Age!
(Elemental…)
Cauldron after cauldron,
Sycophant after sycophant,
Lead after lead,
Wealth after wealth,
Gold after gold,
Silver after silver!
This is indeed an Elemental Age!
People construct shackles of gold and silver,
And place these on you and us;
And you and we act happy when putting them on!
The pretense of gratitude, going so far as to say “Thank You!”
And then there’s another age, of congruence as well,
The Iron Age, that is to say,
Namely, iron is that metal whose power reigns over everyone.
A ploughshare is made of iron,
Factory machinery is also made of iron.
Iron can also be made into a magnet,
In which case, it even draws silver!
As the saying goes,
One hundred strikes of the goldsmith are
Equal to one stroke of the ironsmith,
Hence, keepers of gold are always in fear of ironworkers.
But for how long can this ironic age remain stumped by golddiggers?
Indeed, this ironic age will be here soon in our country!
Raw iron good-for-nothings, so inferiorly built by gold digging financiers,
Knowing raw iron to be so inferior,
So they infect mankind entirely with such menial materials,
With their own weighted powers!
And mankind resulting from this mechanism is called ironman.
And iron men rust in so far as to erode humanity,
Yet, people continue to pick up these rusted ironmen from rubbish dumps,
And burn them [not in enmity or effigy, but in fellowship] while chanting slogans,
“Long live so and so!”
(Prehistoric…)
Then there is another, a different age,
Where people walk around naked,
Where they dance around naked,
And frequent clubs in their nakedness,
Verbally undressing one another at public gatherings,
Even undressing the public with such disgrace!
In fact, they even pull off their hides,
Establishing a financial wealth exchange system
With such hides, devouring their raw meat!
Need for neither hearth nor a skewer,
This is the Prehistoric Age!
(Industrial…)
Then there’s the industry of adulteration,
Included within are
The industry of bribery,
The industry of banking,
Industry of black transaction,
Industry of personal gain,
Industry of [thinning] membranes,
Industry of allegations and slogans,
Industry of amulets and talismans,
This is our Industrial Age, that is to say!
(Paper…)
Paper clothing,
Paper houses,
Paper mankind,
Paper jungles,
Paper lions,
Get a little damp and all of them
Collapse in a heap.
Paper currency notes,
Paper votes,
Paper conscience,
Paper Muslims,
Paper newspapers,
Even paper journalists!
All of this, indeed, is the Paper Age!
(Space… )
Now look at this last age:
Stomach empty of bread,
Pocket empty of money,
Discourse empty of insight,
Promises empty of truth,
Heart empty of sympathy,
Brain empty of intelligence,
City streets abandoned by the wise,
Jungles abandoned by balanced roars,
This age is the Space Age!
Mankind inflates egos with the helium of hallucination,
Takes electuary as a medicine by the pounds,
Forms committee to appropriate the appearance of a crescent moon,
Being so clever as to pluck the stars from the sky,
[With their anointed expertise, they carry out such subterfuge!]
Devouring fat-tailed rams with arrogance, without apprehension,
Inside their privy/latrine, with their trajectiles/excrements,
They reach the orbit [towards sewers, not skies]:
Oh yes, over here
This very epoch
Is the Space Age!
THE END.
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