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SONGS FROM THE MANDAEAN LITURGY

The Songs from the Mandaean Liturgy 1 given here represent examples taken from the ritual texts of the Mandaean gnostics. These texts sing of a poor man who is a stranger in this world, a kind being who offers light, and a letter that communicates life. The last song recommends, “Be like wine jars.”

SONG OF THE POOR MAN

A Poor Man Taken Far

I am a poor man from the fruit.

They took me from far away. I am far.

I am a poor man whom life spoke to.

I am far. The light beings took me away.

They carried me here from the good

to where the wicked live.

They installed me in the world of the wicked

where all is malice and fire .

I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t want to come

to this awful place.

By my strength and light I suffer through

this misery. By illumination and praise.

I remain a stranger in their world.

I stand among the wicked like a child without a father.

Like a fatherless child, an untended fruit.

I hear the voice of the seven planets.

They whisper. They say among themselves,

“Where does this alien come from?

He doesn’t speak like us.”

I didn’t listen to their speech raging against me.

The Kindly Light Being

Life heard my cry and sent an angel,

a kindly light being who was prepared for me.

He told me in a pure voice

as light beings speak in the house of perfection.

He said, “Poor man, don’t be alarmed or fearful.

Don’t say, ‘I am utterly alone.’

For you we spread the firmament above.

For you we spread the firmament above and made dry land.

We made dry land,

and solid land came and stood in the water.

For you the sun came,

for you the moon came into the firmament,

for you, poor one, the seven planets

and twelve creatures of the zodiac were set in orbit.

Radiance sits at your right hand

and glittering light on your left.

Be strong in your seed until you are fulfilled.

I will bring you a lovely shawl of light ,

abundant and boundless.

You will sit in your own heavenly place.”

A Letter Looped around One’s Neck

Here is a sealed letter

leaving the world,

a letter written with truth

and marked with the seal

of mighty life.

Perfect ones wrote it,

and believers insured it.

They looped it around

the soul’s neck

and sent it to the gate

of life. The soul wisely

used her finger

to mark the open letter.

Be Like Wine Jars

You of my blood, speak the truth.

Close your lying lips.

Don’t be a pomegranate whose outer face is fresh.

Its outer face is fresh, but inside it is full

of rotting corn seed.

Be like wine jars filled with redolent wine.

Their outer shells are clay and pitch,

but inside is redolent wine.

The message of life shouts. Ears of my chosen,

come and hear me.