A Message To A Tyrant.

Sowing flowers will adorn
Your home and your street.
Sow flowers; don't sow thorns.
They will prick your own feet.

How you look at every one
With your eyes full of greed.
You forget that you will, too,
One day ride Death's Steed.

When you shoot arrows at others
Don't forget to realize,
That the same arrows will come
Back to pierce your eyes.

Dig not a well in another's path
Lest you come to the edge yourself.
Human beings are all one body;
Who hurts another, hurts himself.

On a highland sow not,
Farmers, to farm a crop.
Seek lowliness, o friend,
If you want to reach the top.

Reconsider your path
Now that your day is bright.
Lo, lest this shining day
Turn into a black night.

The heart, which like a ship,
Carries every body's load,
Never faces any storm
And goes safe to God's abode.




English version of a Pashto poem, "Sow Flowers", of Pashtun poet, "Rahman Baba"(1650--1715 A.D), famous for "Sufism", God's Love and the love of Humanity. He is the most revered and loved poet in Pashtun society, both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I tried to translate this poem in English, hope it will be appreciated. This poem, "Sow Flowers", is one of the most famous poems of Rahman Baba. It is memorized by almost every Pashtun. I titled it "A Message To A Tyrant", because it has a nice message for the tyrants.