Sindbad The Sailor - Voyage 6 Poem by Shankaran Kutty

Having gone through all the turmoil
Not once or twice but five
Having cheated death so many times
And lucky just being alive

Faulted can’t be if you were to think
With the kind of wealth I made
Ventured not a step outside
At home I peacefully stayed

It was not the places I went
Or all the money’s lure
Nor the belief in my present health
Another trip I can endure

I need to breathe in the salty sea
And a journey’s trials and thrill
Am not the one to sit at home
Bored, with time to kill

Time I needed to recoup my health
So a year at home took rest
And decided that the preparations
This time would be the best

Did not sail from the Persian Gulf
But across Persia I trudged
In a captain I had known to be best
All my hopes I hedged

The journey long, we set sail
In weather so pleasant and bright
Peaceful we sailed for a hot long day
And a bright moonlit night

Suddenly we spied the captain rush
Leaving his post and rudder
His face had grown so pale and drained
Seeing him did we all shudder

“Pray, tell us why you are so pale
What on earth did happen?
If you yourself give up hope
Then what will we do, O Captain? ”

“Across all the seven seas”
The captain slowly said
“There is no ocean current that
Sailors does more dread

It flows straight to a mountain
With a strength that none can defy
Only God can help us now
Otherwise our end is nigh “

There wasn’t much we could do
For in an hour and a quarter
Our ship had crashed into the rocks
And lay scattered in the water

No lives then we had lost
Rushing to the floating wreckage
Our goods and rations we picked
And whatever we could salvage

Strange was the ways of that land
For instead of flowing to the Ocean
A river runs from the sea
Into a deep and dark cavern

The stones on the mountain wall
Were made of crystal and rubies
And though we weren’t sure to live
We ran and collected the freebies

To avoid future fights
Our rations we shared equal
As it depleted each passing day
Our hunger, we couldn’t quell

Some people died of hunger
Others from their pores did bleed
But one after the other every one
To their untimely death did yield

I had started to hear
The music of funeral lyre
The smoke and the heat
Of my own pyre

I knew I had no hope
For creeping near was death
But I swore that I will fight
Against fate, till my last breath

I started to build a raft
For my death I won’t wait
I decided to follow the river
And tempt my impending fate

As soon as in the cavern
There was no more light
Laid low and waited
Not knowing day or night

I know not whether my senses
I lost or simply slept
Yearning for my family
In my dreams, I remember I wept

Whether I die of hunger
Or drowning, didn’t matter
I suddenly awoke to the sound
Of many an incessant chatter

On a plain by a river bank
Surrounded by dark men
Having not eaten for days
Food was my only thought then

Unlike the vilest animals
My trips I had before met
These men seemed so nice
From them I felt no threat

They gave me food to eat
And to drink the sweetest water
To the famished hungry me
That tasted like nectar

Overjoyed was I
For in their midst one bloke
Amongst that foreign tongue
Arabic, he spoke

They sat and patiently heard
My sad and sordid account
And quickly bringing me a horse
Even helped me to mount.

This blessed land I found
Serendib was its name
As land of precious stones
Lay its claim to fame

The dutiful subjects they were
They took me before their king
Who ordered his men to take care
Of me, my food and my lodging

In every corner I found
People with me empathise
This land where Adam had lived
When banished, from Paradise

A week with my wonderful hosts
My health had fully regained
I felt enough pains I have had
Which, for this voyage was ordained

So I went and met the king
And humbly expressed my desire
To go back to my homeland
And then forever retire

The king was glad to see
Me back so soon on my feet
And told from the land of the Caliph
A subject, he was happy to meet

“Pray, would it inconvenience you
To do this help, my friend
When back you reach Baghdad
Run for me this errand

To the Caliph Al-Raschid
Will you deliver my humble gift?
The weather is now very clear
So be off on your journey, swift “

The orderlies then before me
Laid out the gifts to give
So priceless were each one
Had to be seen to truly believe

A cup from a single ruby
More than six inches high
Had pearls around its brim
Dazzling, like the evening sky

There was a skin of a serpent
Scales were made of gold
It cures one of all illness
Whoever does it hold

Then there was a slave
One of beauty enchanting
She wore a golden robe
With jewels, most dazzling

Finally, there was a letter
Written in utmost humility
Passing his obeisance
To the Caliph, His Majesty

I gathered all these gifts
Along with my treasure
Set sail on the royal ship
Richer beyond measure

With a thousand jewels on his Sceptre
And a million more on his throne
Sat the greatest Caliph ever
On his head, the royal crown

He held the royal court
As the courtiers sat half naked
In respect to the Caliph
The most revered and most sacred

I bowed before the emperor
As rolled the royal drum
“With a scroll and gifts for you
From a faraway land I come “

He read the scroll with interest
There broke a smile on his lip.
“But tell me my dear sailor
Does his wealth, our country’s outstrip? ”

“I really don’t know my Lord
Nor do I think I can compare
But with wealth as his and a heart of gold
Kings I have found very rare”

The emperor opened the gifts
With pleasure his face then beamed
Like a child with his first toy was
The emperor, to me it seemed

And in that moment of joy
He showered on me many presents
Like a slave before his master
Quiet had been my acquiescence

Thus did end my voyage six
Shipwreck, then gifts to the Caliph and more
But come my friend, be my guest
For the morrow, you will hear stories more