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The Battle of the Imam and the Shah
—An Old Persian Legend
James Fenton
……………………………………………………………………..
It started with a stabbing at a well
Below the minarets of Isfahan.
The widow took her son to see them kill
The officer who’d murdered her old man.
The child looked up and saw the hangman’s work —
The man who’d killed his father swinging high,
The mother said: ‘My child, now be at peace.
The wolf has had the fruits of all his crime.’
…………………………………………
From felony to felony to crime
From robbery to robbery to loss
From calumny to calumny to spite
From rivalry to rivalry to zeal
…………………………………………
All this was many centuries ago —
The kind of thing that couldn’t happen now —
When Persia was the empire of the Shah
And many were the furrows on his brow.
The peacock the symbol of his throne
And many were the jewels and its eyes
And many were the prisons in the land
And many were the torturers and spies.
…………………………………………
From tyranny to tyranny to war
From dynasty to dynasty to hate
From villainy to villainy to death
From policy to policy to grave…
The child grew up a clever sort of chap
And he became a mullah, like his dad —
Spent many years in exile and disgrace
Because he told the world the Shah was bad.
‘Believe in God,’ he said, ‘believe in me.
Believe me when I tell you who I am.
Now chop the arm of wickedness away.
Hear what I say, I am the great Imam.’
…………………………………………
From heresy to heresy to fire
From clerisy to clerisy to fear
From litany to litany to sword
From fallacy to fallacy to wrong
…………………………………………
And so the Shah was forced to flee abroad.
The Imam was the ruler in his place.
He started killing everyone he could
To make up for the years of his discgrace.
And when there were no enemies at home
He sent his men to Babylon to fight.
And when he’d lost an army in that way
He knew what God was telling him was right.
…………………………………………
From poverty to poverty to wrath
From agony to agony to doubt
From malady to malady to shame
From misery to misery to fight
…………………………………………
He sent the little children out to war.
They went out with his portrait in their hands.
The desert and the marshes filled with blood.
The mothers heard the news in Isfahan.
Now Babylon is buried under dirt.
Persepolis is peeping through the sand.
The child who saw his father’s killer killed
Has slaughtered half the children in the land.
…………………………………………
From felony
to robbery
to calumny
to rivalry
to tyranny
to dynasty
to villainy
to policy
to heresy
to clerisy
to litany
to fallacy
to poverty
to agony
to malady
to misery —
…………………………………………
The song is yours. Arrange it as you will.
Remember where each word fits in the line
And every combination will be true
And every permutation will be fine:
…………………………………………
From policy to felony to fear
From litany to heresy to fire
From villainy to tyranny to war
From tyranny to dynasty to shame
…………………………………..
From poverty to malady to grave
From malady to agony to spite
From agony to misery to hate
From misery to policy to fight!
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