The old beggar, without raising his head he had lowered
as though to observe and unknot a geomantic theme, said:
“True knowledge is like a light
that comes from above to pierce the shadows of ignorance,
like a lightning bolt piercing the heavy cloud
that darkens and blackens the surrounding sky.
Penetrating the soul, it brings joy, health, and peace,
three things men wish for themselves
and for those they love; life has promised perpetual existence,
and death has sworn to bring it to an end.
Light dissipates night, night envelopes light.
Which of the two will win out over the other?
When one family mourns over a man departed,
another rejoices over a birth.
Sadness among some is happiness among others; know,
Hammadi, that the two trees exchanging their greenery
symbolize rivalry 145, a secret habit
that is powerful and unending in this world.
Death is life's rival, and life contradicts it,
just as unhappiness is set apart from happiness.
Hammadi, you had seen but the outward signs
and now you know the eighth secret
of the mysterious land of the dwarf-spirits.
It belongs to Kaidara the distant, the nearby.”
A great light shone and Hammadi said:
“Now tell me the meaning of the ninth symbol of the country.
What does it mean, master who knows
the secret of lands and transformations,
such as places where flowers produce birds,
where stones give cow butter which is always fresh!” 146
The old beggar stayed in the same pose
and said:
“Hammadi, all alert men
guard their sheep in a closed area,
just as Geno confides

Notes (Lilyan Kesteloot)
145. The great law of dualism, already evoked above. It is often compared with the rivalry between wives of the same husband and between competition or alternation of opposites or complements.
146. Poetic image for evoking the village of metamorphosis, where the rooster was changed into a ram and then into a bull.