The Martian Damsel Who Claimed to Be a Prophetess

We passed by thousands of streets and mansions; on the edge of the city was a broad square.

And in that square a swarm of men and women, amidst them a woman with the stature of a tall pomegranate-tree.

Her face was radiant, but without the light of the soul, as if its meaning were too hard to express;

Her speech lacked fire, her eyes lacked tears, not intimate with the joy of desire:

Her breast was void of the ardour of youth, blind and unreceptive to images her mirror;

She knew nothing of love and the laws of love, she was a sparrow spurned by the hawk of love.

That sage who knew all subtleties spoke to us: ‘This damsel is not of the Martians;

Simple and free of guile, without artifice, Farzmarz kidnapped her from the Franks.

And made her expert in the craft of prophethood, then let her loose upon this world;

She declared, "I have come down from heaven; my message is the final message of time."

She speaks of the status of man and woman; she speaks more openly of the secrets of the body.

The destiny of life in this end of time I will now recount in the language of earthlings.’