skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Jean Leon Gerome, 1879
or, Travels With My Giddy Aunt, wherein the authors discuss their adventures, misadventures, shocks, surprises, disappointments, hopes, dreams, nightmares, complexes, successes, environs, travels, gaffes, faux-pas, and hairstyles for the benefit and pleasure of loved ones near and far, and for voyeuristic strangers that make them slightly nervous.
The Call to Prayer
Jean Leon Gerome, 1879
Call To Prayer (Adhan)
Lente, lente currite noctis equii: (Allahu ackbar!)*
Given its head, the night runs faster than a man can breathe
Its nostrils pant, its dusky edges heave,
And I am pulled from sleep too soon:
The yellow tones of morning and the morning song
Too early crowed, but not in the cock’s throat.
The call to prayer comes early:
“Our alarm clock,” quipped a friend,
Indicating the humble mosque at his front door.
We have one, too. We all do in this garden city,
This oasis overrun but not yet ruined,
And the mosque, with its staggered chorus
Of muezzin, fairly owns us, night and day:
There’s hardly time to leave off praying my litany of regrets
From a day spent seeking more help than I had given
Before I’m called back to my knees.
I do not join the sweated worship of the immigrants,
But I think of prayer far more here than ever before,
For God is great indeed, and it is better to pray than sleep,
Even if all one does is pray to sleep a little more
Before the panting night is stabled, brushed, and fed,
And the mu'adhdhin clears his rooster throat.
Its nostrils pant, its dusky edges heave,
And I am pulled from sleep too soon:
The yellow tones of morning and the morning song
Too early crowed, but not in the cock’s throat.
The call to prayer comes early:
“Our alarm clock,” quipped a friend,
Indicating the humble mosque at his front door.
We have one, too. We all do in this garden city,
This oasis overrun but not yet ruined,
And the mosque, with its staggered chorus
Of muezzin, fairly owns us, night and day:
There’s hardly time to leave off praying my litany of regrets
From a day spent seeking more help than I had given
Before I’m called back to my knees.
I do not join the sweated worship of the immigrants,
But I think of prayer far more here than ever before,
For God is great indeed, and it is better to pray than sleep,
Even if all one does is pray to sleep a little more
Before the panting night is stabled, brushed, and fed,
And the mu'adhdhin clears his rooster throat.
Copyright JaPes, 2007
*"Lente, . . . ": "Slowly, run slowly, ye horses of night!" (from Christopher Marlowe's Tragicall Historie of Doctor Faustus); "Allahu ackbar!": "God is great!" (An arresting exclamation these days, but like U2 and that song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles: "we're stealin' it back!").
About Us
Fellow Travelers, Near and Far
Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Academia (3)
- Animalia (4)
- Apocalypse Now (1)
- Christmases and Other Holy Days (6)
- Christopher (3)
- Congratulationisms (1)
- Creepy Crawlies (1)
- Culinary Befrights (1)
- Dubailand (5)
- Engrish (2)
- Eternal City (1)
- Faux-pas (2)
- Fellow Sufferers (1)
- Gadzooks (1)
- Gaffes (2)
- Holy Hand Grenades Batman (1)
- Islam (3)
- Jests and Jokes (5)
- Jonah (10)
- Jonahisms (3)
- Kicks and Giggles (1)
- Ladies and Dudes (1)
- Loved Ones Lost (2)
- Materialisms (2)
- Mom and The KIDS (15)
- Mormonisthmus (10)
- Musicology (1)
- Not-so-Holy Days (8)
- Plasticalidocious (1)
- Poems (6)
- Pop Quiz (2)
- Reviews (1)
- Riley (2)
- Romantic Traffic (9)
- Round Round Get Around We Get Around (2)
- Salalah Oman (1)
- Say what? (1)
- Shout-outs (6)
- Signs of the Times (1)
- Simply Awesome (1)
- Sub-Cultural Commentary (31)
- Taunts (1)
- Theologicon (1)
- These Are the People in Our Neighborhood (17)
- Tourists-r-Us (7)
- Trips Home (2)
- Visitors from Other Space (3)
- We're S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G (1)
- Weather (2)
- What the ----? (2)
- Who are the people in our blogsophere? (1)
- Wish Pond (1)
- Your Questions Answered (2)
Posts
An Open, Erm, Note to Readers
Want to be included in our blogroll and/or link dump? Let us know. We'll vet and consider and maybe, just maybe, include you. We do try to be inclusive, including including people we don't know but whose cut of their respective ejibs we like. You get the idea.
5 comments:
Let's save up, and meet there for the dedication. The pizza is on me, my friend. :-) I won't miss this. . . (My bet is April 6, 2010). G in Tokyo
this video won't work, but from the comment above, i'm assuming it's concerning the temple in rome.
wahoo! is right. i immediately thought of you guys...
very exciting.
Oh good, it is not just me, I can't see the video either. I didn't get it until I read Erin's comment :) How exciting though, and Calgary, AB, too! Wahoo!
Hmm. Worked for me. Try that.
I love how after Pres. Monson announced the temples, you could hear everyone whispering. It's a good thing Brad & I were watching at home since as soon as he said Calgary, I screamed. :)
I hope everyone in your family is doing well. Love your blog, but I usually don't comment on it. Ty says hi to "Bro Penny". Have a great day!
The Stephans
Post a Comment