The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî

Name: The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî
Author: Richard Francis Burton

by Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890)

Free to read
1 hour to read
10 chapters
Reading level: 8th & 9th grade

"The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî" by Sir Richard Francis Burton is a long poem published in 1880. Written under a Persian pseudonym, Burton presents this work as a translation though no original text ever existed. The poem distills Sufi mystical thought into verse, exploring human reason, ego, and spirituality while drawing from classical Persian masters like Hafez and Omar Khayyam. Burton crafted what scholars call a "spiritual autobiography," attempting to bridge Eastern Sufi wisdom with Western thought through this elaborate literary deception.

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English poetry · 19th century

Read the opening

Chapter I

The hour is nigh; the waning Queen
walks forth to rule the later night;
Crownd 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:

* The false dawn.

The highlands catch yon Orient gleam,
while purpling still the lowlands lie;
And pearly mists, the morning-pride,
soar incense-like to greet the sky.

The horses neigh, the camels groan,
the torches gleam, the cressets flare;
The town of canvas falls, and man
with din and dint invadeth air:

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About this edition

This free edition of The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî by Richard Francis Burton comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #6036, released 2004-07-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Poetry, Philosophy & Ethics.

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