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IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MARCO POLO


WELL OF JOB

In present Uzbekistan
A small mosque is and a well
The natives believe that here
Ayub drew water

Ayub is an Arabic name
Means the prophet Job
Who so many disasters
During his life was to see

In the past these areas
Had the name Chorasan
Was visited by Marco Polo
And described thoroughly

SMOKY CITY

Bukhara “smoky city”
In Chorezm or Chorasan
Is known for famous Dervishes
Has the status of a “holy city”

In this city is a donkey monument
The Dervish Nasreddin on him
Sits astride back
Looks at the donkey`s tail

The Dervish dress is strange
It is very dowdy
But words and deeds
Have their weight

Nasreddin advised priests
To build wells
To pour it with cement
Put them upside down

These are the Dervish`s minarets
His proverbs in this style
Have amused many descendants
Also have taught reason

Doctor Avicenna
Also grew up in Bukhara
The famous Dervish Pahlavi
Also was raised in Chorezm

THE TOMB OF JONAH

In Samarkand on the hill
A small temple stands
Muslims as well as Jews
Are headed to this

A huge cemetery next to it
Of three great religious of the world
Jewish and Muslim
Christian lies in the middle

This hill in past
Was called Afrosiab
On this is buried
Jonah from Nineveh – the prophet

Here call him Junus
He is worshipped like he died yesterday
The green material covers
His solid tombstone

Sweets lie, money, gifts
All this from pilgrims
Everyone takes off their sandals
From the source drinks water

PAHLAVI FROM CHIWA

Dervish Pahlavi won
The fight in Indians
Local Radża promised
To give whatever he will ask for

To this country many from Chorezm
Were taken captive
Pahlavi asked for prisoners
To let Radża free them

“What amount should I release?”
Radża asked the Dervish
“How many will be able to fit
Into the skin of a cow” – said

When he got the promise
Asked for skin and knife
He cut out a long strap
And encircled a large field around it

TAMERLAN`S PORTRAIT

“IRON TIMUR’ ordered
His portrait, though he wasn`t handsome
The Ruler of Central Asia
Did it out of curiosity

He sentenced the first artist
Because he made a portrait too nice
The second artist was killed
For a too-scarlet portrait

The third survived by a miracle
Timur had a sick body
Didn`t have one eye
He limped because was lame

In order not to hide these flaws
But to show discreetly
He made a portrait “on a horse”
With a bow in Timur`s hands

Timur aiming at the bow
Narrowed his blind eye
And no one could see the curves
Of Tamerlan`s legs in the saddle

SAMARKAND

When Timur conquered this city
Promised the grace to the burghers
That their blood will not be spilled
If they give up to him

Ten thousand townspeople surrendered
What he swore he did
To “not spill blood”
He buried the prisoners alive

Today Samarkand is beautiful
Tamerlan`s monument
Reigns on the hill of the city
His cemetery is next to this

After his death he was buried
With his family
Above the grave is the Guri mosque
Quite solid

XIEN – XIEN

In China worship being in love
On the seventh of July because
It is a happy date when the day
And month numbers coincide

On the fifth of May every year
Worship in China the boys` celebration
On September ninth
Mention their ancestors

The legend says about a certain case
For lovers` day
That the king let his daughter
Meet her lover once a year

She had another for a husband
Who she didn`t love
The king saw his daughter suffer
He invented a solution

ACUPUNCTURE

The art of acupuncture
Is known in the south
Went to the capital of China
A thousand years ago

Southerners after the defeat
Gave away bronze figures
In which the future doctors
Were to learn to pierce

After some time one of two
Valuable figures was stolen
By a strange twist of fate
One of them is in St. Petersburg

This is how trophies from many countries
Around the world
Accidentally land in Russia
Like some boomerangs

WALL

Beautiful young girl
In the southern province
A few days after her marriage
Lost your young husband

He was arrested
He was soon sent north
To build a great wall
She missed him immensely

She took warm clothes
Baked a lot of sweets
Wandered in a hurry
Guided by the instinct of love

She asked the builders
About her beloved one
When she arrived
For several days he had been dead

According to legend she cried
With such great tears
That she rinsed the body
Deeply rooted in the ground

HEAVENLY LEARNING

An Italian famous astronomer
Named Matteo Ricci
Came to China in his youth
To the Confucian school

He met Chinese langue
All their hieroglyphs
Lectured there astronomy
He was a Jesuit Father

The Emperor who liked science
Liked also the monk
Next to your palace
Built him a beautiful church

He gave permission to teach
The catechism at the emperor`s school
Our church in China was given
The name “Heavenly science”

LAURENSIO RUIZ

Ruiz catechist from Manila
Helped the Dominicans
He was suspected by the authority
Of a common crime

Emigrated to the Missions
Not to waste time
So he went to Japan
There he helped the missionaries

Again he went to court
This time for faith in Jesus
At this time he didn`t run away
Accepted the palm of martyrdom

SAMURAI OUTLAW

One Japanese Prince
Today already is blessed
Resigned from his post
Although was a great governor

When Christ`s enemies
Continued to press on him
He didn`t deny himself
Gave up all your possessions

Gave up everything what he had
Bought a large ship
Several hundred Christians sat with him
Left your homeland

In Manila is a district
In it is the tomb of Samurai
Christians from Japan lived there
They left homeland but kept their faith

PETER LUNGSOD

Catechist Peter Langsod
And thirty companions
Left homeland
To help the Jesuits

They landed on Guam
400 years ago
They visited a lot of villages
Protected the priests

One day when christening
Was taking place on Guam
One of the local chiefs
Was angry and very drunk

Didn`t want to baptize your children
But his wife did it
He decided to take revenge
Threw the spear into the priest

Peter covered him your body
The spear pierced Langsod
Managed to confess
He is the first martyr from the Philippines

JESUIT VITTORIA

Father Vittoria came from
A wealthy noble family
He was in very good relations
With the king of Spain himself

He was appointed guardian
Of the Missions to Guam
Didn`t want to take soldiers
He took many catechists

After four years of work
Many have been converted
Others wanted to take revenge
Were looking for some excuse

The opportunity arose
When Vittoria baptized the children
Lungsod defended his superior
With your body

He confessed him
He was about to die after a while
Being hit by an ax
Today Guam is Catholic

MARIA RICA

On the edge of Manila
Are the Dominican Sisters
They run a retreat house
And beautiful seminary

This place is charming
There are many hills
On one of them stands
A figure of great size

Under the concrete skirt
A large room is hidden
Pilgrims sit here
Listen to the retreat

Stairs are climbing up
Inside a powerful statue
Near “Her Heart”
Chapel and Tabernacle

DLSA – MANILA

De Los Santos Avenues
The longest street in Manila
In this middle is the beautiful
Figure of the Virgin Mary

At Her feet is the Chapel
It looks like a cave
This commemorates the victory
Over the Markos`s regime

Nearby is a monument:
A large group of paupers
Workers and priests
Secular women and nuns

They are holding tools
Hammers, clubs, rosaries
Someone lifts Mary`s statue
Of little size

ANDREW DUNG LAC

Hero of Vietnamese Christians
Priest, poet and doctor
He hid his whole life
Changed your name

Despite the many efforts
Of the missionaries
The authorities hated our church
Persecuted the faithful

Hundreds like Andrew
Have been canonized recently
He became a symbol of the era
And the great Vietnamese sacrifice

VAN – THUAN

Cardinal Francisco Xavier
Was a relative of Vietnam prime
When the communists came
Arrested the family

13 years he was in the cell
Where he couldn`t lie down
Could rest at night
Twisted like an embryo or squatting

In the day he insulted everything
Until half of the sentence
Then he was allowed
To write a letter to the parishioners

He asked for wine and a host
Called it “good medicine”
The commune wasn`t dripping
The Cardinal could celebrate every day

PAUL MIKI

24 crosses
Stood in Nagasaki
7 Jesuits
The rest are Franciscans

Father Paul Miki Japanese
From the height of the Cross
Your last sermon
Delivered “from the bottom of heart”

“I don`t want to make you illusions
No way to heaven
Except in the church of Jesus
Really is nowhere”

AKITA

A nun from Akita
In her humble monastery
Saw on a small figure of Mother of God
Tears in Her eyes

She reported this to the Bishop
He said a miracle and announced
That Mama Mary never
Cries without a reason

Why in the city of Akita
Mary`s tears pouring
Know this best in Japan
Where the Church has been suffering for centuries

Persecutions have passed
But superstitions continue
They say that Christians
Are Japan`s traitors

ANDREW KIM

The first priest was torn off
His head for his faith
He was ordained in Manila
One year he worked in Korea…

His fiend carried his body
To native village
Wandered of that all night
The body folded to the tomb

Today is the Chapel here
Cathedral nearby
Andrew`s Church looks
Like an Egyptian pyramid

NAJU

In Korea The Virgin Mary
Asked not to do abortions
She cried bloody tears
In the small town of Naju

I was - I saw the Chapel
The Bishop forbade pilgrimages
People come privately
I was also privately there

I have been on duty for three days
I felt great in Chapel
I celebrated Mass in a room
Of respect for the Bishop`s will

Volunteers listen
To the Catholic Bishop
Who in the defense of conceived
Your voice didn`t use

There was a beautiful excuse
The hierarch , however, knows better
Volunteers are waiting
Are on duty in a tiny church…

YI BOK

Five students from Beijing
Began to preach in Korea
That what they heard
At Jesuits lectures

Many Buddhist monasteries
Have accepted faith in Jesus
YI BOK son of the Minister
In this matter gave your life

The king of Korea didn`t think
To support a new religion
He urged the Minister
To honor suicide

Yi Bok told his father
To wait with suicide
He himself took a great hunger strike
After two weeks he died

HANTI

“Not holy pots stick”
This is say in Poland
But in faraway Korea
Was exactly the opposite

The first Catholics
Were protected from the police
In mountain settlements
And produced clay pots

To the pots as big as barrels
Chinese cabbage is put
With a lot of peppers
Dish is called KIM-CZI

Thanks to this specialty
Many have survived in mountains
Alongside Taeg one of those
Catholic villages is called Hanti

CHARBEL MAKHLOUF

Szarbel Makhlouf is the favorite
Saint of the inhabitants of Lebanon
He is loved even in Russia
Liked him the Orthodox…

One of Charbel`s miracles
Is fragrant oil which from the coffin
For 200 years accumulates
Pilgrims pour this on the wounds…

Another is photography
50 years after his death
Pilgrims made it to them
Photographer called Charbel`s face…

Older brothers from the monastery
Who still his face remembered
Found that this face
Is consistent with the original

SIMEON STYLITES

The Emperor visited Simeon
He sat on a column
Fad himself with anything
Preached to the pilgrims

The column was small
Simeon was still enlarging it
They say that at the end his life
Column was 60 meters

He moved away from people
He was getting closer to heaven
It was not the Tower of Babel
His langue didn`t get mixed up