Page 4 - New Year's cards

Third panel

XI

Here with some Opium inside the Pipe,
A motorbike, a Concrete house—and wipe
The Nomad Tents out from the Wilderness—
And Wilderness for taking then is ripe.

Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.

XXV

Why, all the Tehranis who went whole-hog
For Western Ways so rapidly, must jog
Like bloated camels forth; their Chanting drowned
By Traffic, in Zurkhanas stopt with smog.

Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss’d
Of the Two Worlds so learnedly, are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn
Are scatter’d, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.