Classic Poem

" O Ashraf, what is this outcry and lamentation? What is this sighing and crying for the people?
Speak out plainly: who and what are you? Are you [a man of] one maund, or ten maunds, or twenty?
Even if the flood carries away this city and land, know for a surety that sleep overpowers us.
What is the newspaper? What is this disturbance? Think of some action, for there is no dearth of talents.
Russia and Japan are nothing to us! What have we to do with Prussia and Germany?
If the luminary of the Constitution hath shone forth, what is that [to us]? If the Sun of Knowledge hath arisen, what is that [to us]?
You vehemently urge and incite the children to [attend] the new schools;
Then you desire in every town and district to establish a teachers' college.
Alas for the child who goes to school! A child should run about the streets:
A child should make kites: a child should play pitch and toss:
A child should break the mulla's ankles: a child should break [people's] heads with stones.
A child should be an adept at stone-throwing: a child should be worse than a cat at face-scratching.
Do not make these children's days more gloomy than nights! Do not call a prison a school!
When they consign us to the earth, English will not serve to interpret our thoughts!
This Qur'an is sufficient for us: Tihran is sufficient for the Shah's capital!
If the floods of misfortune attack us, grieve not, for " misfortune is love's portion!"
If I am abased in this world, O uncle, yet shall I be glorified in the Resurrection, O uncle!
Smite us not on the neck with thy pen! Beat not the drum on the roof of our Shaykh!
O Ashraf, do not urge us to [cultivate] Art! Do not talk to us about foreign sciences!
I fear that in the end the sooth-sayer, the spiritual director and the admirer of ancient fashions will break your feet and hands! "