Je ne volerai plus la nature (Abū Al-Alā Al-Maarrī - Extrait) was originally published on the compilation Schlagstrom !Krrrbrrrtztzkrrrbrrrtztz! Vol. 6 (Sleepless Records Berlin), in 2011, under the moniker Kirdec.
The poem here recited in French was written by Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (بو العلاء المعري, 973 – 1057), an Arab philosopher, poet and writer, whose poem Je ne volerai plus la nature (I no longer steal from nature) promoted veganism.
In 2013, almost a thousand years after his death, the al-Nusra Front, a branch of al-Qaeda, beheaded a statue of al-Maʿarri during the Syrian civil war.
sleepless-berlin.bandcamp.com
www.discogs.com/Various-Schlagstrom-Krrrbrrrtztzkrrrbrrrtztz-Vol-6/release/3073597
Here is the full poem in French and in English, I wish I had it in Arabic too.
Je ne volerai plus la Nature
Tu es malade de compréhension et de religion.
Viens à moi, que tu puisses entendre une saine vérité.
Ne mange pas injustement le poisson que la mer a rejeté,
et ne désire pas comme nourriture la chair des animaux égorgés,
Ou le lait blanc des mères qui destinaient ce pur breuvage
à leurs petits et non aux nobles dames.
N’afflige pas les oiseaux confiants en prenant leurs œufs ;
car l’injustice est le pire des crimes.
Et épargne le miel que les abeilles ont de manière industrieuse
recueilli de la fleur des plantes parfumées ;
Car elles ne l’ont pas conservé pour qu’il puisse appartenir à d’autres,
pas plus qu’elles ne l’ont amassé par générosité ou pour en faire don.
J’ai lavé mes mains de tout cela ;
et je souhaite avoir trouvé ma voie avant que mes cheveux soient devenus gris !
Al-Ma’arri
I No Longer Steal from Nature
You are diseased in understanding and religion.
Come to me, that you may hear something of sound truth.
Do not unjustly eat fish the water has given up,
And do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals,
Or the white milk of mothers who intended its pure draught
for their young, not noble ladies.
And do not grieve the unsuspecting birds by taking eggs;
for injustice is the worst of crimes.
And spare the honey which the bees get industriously
from the flowers of fragrant plants;
For they did not store it that it might belong to others,
Nor did they gather it for bounty and gifts.
I washed my hands of all this; and wish that I
Perceived my way before my hair went grey!
Al-Ma’arri