Hayam [Persia]
They call it the flip bowl of the sky,
Here is our cage of life and death:
Don't throw yourself on the ground, raise your hand to the sky for help-
Its incompetence is the same as yours and mine.
(translated by Huang Gao, selected from Jouba Yi Ji)
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Regarding Hayam's creation, Mr. Huang Gao thinks in the preface of his translation of "Jubayi Collection": "Among Persian and Tajik poets in the Middle Ages, only in his poems, the hero is largely an eccentric with independent personality, not controlled by supernatural spirits such as gods or kings."
In this poem, we can observe the above rebellious spirit in the poet's soul. In the first two sentences of the poem, the poet compared the so-called sky of orthodox Muslims to a small "overturned bowl", and then used a "cage" to describe the land where we live and die. On the one hand, this mocked the mystery and pretence of religion, on the other hand, it also represented the poet's heavy living experience. The third and fourth sentences simply irrefutably deny the omnipotence of "heaven", pointing out that "its incompetence is the same as yours and mine" and teaching people "don't throw yourself on the ground, raise your hand to heaven for help-". Although the poet's understanding is far from that of later European Renaissance writers and thinkers who regarded man as "the essence of the universe and the primate of all things" (in Shakespeare's words), he can point out that heaven (God) is as weak as man, which is enough to be extraordinary and brave in the era when medieval theology prevailed.
(Ren Wu)