Song of the poor Man

(from Songs of the Mandaean Liturgy)

A POOR MAN TAKEN FAR

I am a poor man from the fruit.

They took me from far away. I am far.

I am a poor man whom life spoke to.

I am far. The Light Beings took me away.

They carried me here from the good

to where the wicked live.

They installed me in the world of the wicked

where all is malice and fire.

 

I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t want to come

to this awful place.

By my strength and light I suffer through

this misery. By illumination and praise.

I remain a stranger in their world.

I stand among the wicked like a child without a father.

Like a fatherless child, an untended fruit.

I here the voice of the seven planets.¹

They whisper. They say among themselves,

“where does this alien come from?

He doesn’t speak like us.”

I didn’t listen to their speech raging against me.

 

THE KINDLY LIGHT BEING

Life heard my cry and sent an angel,

a kindly Light Being who was prepared for me.

He told me in a pure voice

as Light Beings speak in the house of perfection.²

He said, “poor man, don’t be alarmed or fearful.

Don’t say, ‘I am utterly alone.’

For you we spread the firmament above and made dry land.

We made dry land,

and solid land came and stood in the water,

For you the sun came,

for you the moon came into the firmament,

for you, poor one³, the seven planets

and twelve creatures of the Zodiac were set in orbit.

Radiance sits at your right hand.

and glittering light on your left.

Be strong in your seed until you are fulfilled.

When you are fulfilled

I will come again.

I will bring you splended clothing,

the envy of the world⁴

I will bring you a lovely shawl of light,

abundant and boundless.

I will deliver you from the wicked,

free you from the sinners.

You will sit in your own heavenly place.

I will free you in that pure place.”

 

THE POOR MAN DELIVERED

I hear the voice of the seven planets,

who whisper to one another,

“Blessings on the father of the poor one:

he is the one who tends the fruit tree.⁵

We have no father and no one to attend our tree.⁶”

Welcome to anyone life knows,

and sorrow to whomever life ignores.

Welcome to anyone life knows,

and who stays on earth free

from the world of imperfection⁷,

where the planets live.

They sit on rebel thrones and work with a whip.

Gold and silver excite them,

and they cast war into the world.

They cast war into the world, and they will roast in fire⁸

The evil will roast in fire, their glory gone.

But my family and I will ascend and see

the Place of Light where the Sun does not go down,

where lamps of Light never dim,

the place, the house to which your souls

are called and invited in⁹,

souls of our kin, of the good,

and of the believing brothers and sisters.

There life is extolled.

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