A Poem in Honour of Fire
For the joy of Chaharshanbe Suri

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Thus spoke the third Saoshyant:

O Atar Gushnasp, sit upon the mane of my horse,
so that with the radiant light of truth and Asha
we may reclaim the world from darkness and falsehood
and bring love down into the embodied world.

Let me rise in flame,
lofty like you, toward Him,
like the one cleansed of impurity in the radiant Bahram.
Pass through my soul,
or I shall pass through your heart.

O deathless, smokeless fire,
O proud banner of my luminous history,
how beautiful your form
when you seek the heights.

No creature in the world
is as close as you
to that endless light;
and for this reason we are
your attendants, and worshippers of Him.

So, O guardian of the eternal farr,
tell the foul-worshipping Azi Dahakas:
the seed of us Iranians is from fire.

Remain in me, so that
cold and darkness find no path into my being;
remain with me, to be the boundary
between the light of consciousness and Ahriman,
between death and falsehood.

I am that Ahuric light made manifest,
rising upward as I burn
with this blazing flame within,
for only by burning in this light
shall I give light to the world
and to the souls of human beings.

When the eternal radiance of the light of consciousness
begins to shine in the hearts of your children,
thousands upon thousands will blaze from this fire,
and countless ones will shine
with the light of your endless radiance.

O love,
O warmth of soul and world,
O light drawn from the boundless brilliance of the Light of Lights:
it was not anger that chained Prometheus,
but the fear of the gods—
fear of your rebellious, upward-striving nature.

Remain in me, for if you depart
my soul will turn toward coldness and darkness.
Become forever one with my soul,
to be the boundary between me and the gods.

Aydin Areta