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Poem

Look, how like a python, like a ravenous whale
And like the Bermuda Triangle
The hungry Fire gapes at us!
How terribly the maddened Fire
Devours bricks and stones,
And drinks the piles of snow like tasty wine!
Like a demon, the Fire eats up
Crunching the bones of Cain,
Eats up the skeleton of Lahab
And like the palm’s kernel eats
Uprooting the blue eyes of Genghis Khan.

Alas! Where are you going
Like a bewildered horse?
O Horse, where are you going
Raising your obstinate tail, o Bull?
Breaking down the wall of sight,
Look, how horribly the hungry Fire
Gapes at us! Such a fire it is
That devours piercing not only our visible body
But also the deer of our invisible soul,
Eats up, like a rat, the invisible coconut
Of our heart bit by bit.

There is no Jesus more who will absorb
All the sins into his cross;
There is no Gautama more who will play
Day and night the flute of wisdom
Sitting under the shade of the Bodhi Tree;
There is no Krishna more who will pour down
The cloud of love into Radha’s thirsty eyes;
There is no Mohammad more who will rush
To save you from the clutch of hungry Fire.

O Man, O Horse, O Bull,
Remember, there is no prophet more;
Remember, except a lovelorn poet,
There is no savior more.

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The Waste Land