To The Shadow Of My Own Poem by Muhammad Shanazar

I remember you my attendant,
You have been with me since I was born;
I recall the moment when I saw you for the first time,
I was appalled thinking you some small agent
From a fairy-land, all time spying me,
Then I ran and ran to leave you behind
But you ran too as fast as I could,
And I exhausted, out of breath fell into the lap
Of my mother where you were no more.
You all the times in my childhood remained with me,
In front, behind or beside. In the morn and eve
You were stretched in lengthwise
And at noon you shrank like a coiled snake.
In the days when I led cattle to the pasture,
In the evening I measured you with my bare feet,
Sometimes you lengthened more than fifty yards.
In my whole life you have been
Imitating me in my modes and manners,
I walked, you walked too; I stopped, you stopped too;
When I sat, you squatted too;
I assumed no one but you were an inseparable figure,
And so I passed my life in the same belief.
Alas! It was my false faith in you,
Now I am being drawn to the dark cave, utterly murky,
You will vanish like a fair-weather friend,
Leaving me behind all alone,
My deeds either good or bad will replace you.
Adieu! My attendant,
See you again hereafter in the celestial world.