A gentleman with a hat
by Thaddeus Hutyra

A mysterious gentleman with a hat
travelling round the world
sees someone sitting on a bench
in the Heavens Park of Tehran
The park is very quiet, noiseless
without a slightest gust of wind
oddly enough nor is there any soul
except for one single man
a stranger from a past, a distant past
A Persian, holding in his hands
the magnificent Cyrus cylinder,
of glorious king Cyrus the Great
the king known under numerous titles
The Great King, King of Persia,
King of Anshan, King of Media,
King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad
King of the four corners of the World.
Cyrus the Great, beloved one
Those who were subject to him,
he treated with esteem and regard,
as if they were his own children.
The Babylonians themselves
regarded him even as the Liberator
The Persian looks at the present day Iran
and he's yearning to the freedoms
and the greatness Iranians once had
He's praying for a reborn Persia
her evolving once again, like a virgin
to the mesmerizing glory she was.
The clouds are moving all the time
changing to new and new patterns
Letting the sun's rays to spray
the world or blocking them
and forming instead shadows
which portray as brilliantly
the history of Persia turned Iran.

Oh, freedom, freedom, my love !
Freedom ... Svoboda....Azadi....
Wolnosc ... Freiheit .... Liberdade
Libération .... Libertad .... Libertà

An unknown gentleman with a hat
is looking at serious men in a discussion
The Founding Fathers of America
are sitting at the mahogany table
exactly as then when they announced
the United States of America
a country of Stars and Stripes
and when they established
the first modern constitution
in the history of humankind
enabling people to enjoy freedoms
How much America did change !
All the skyscrapers of New York
The White House, the Capital
the avenues of Washington
the lovely Californian seasides
And the business, small and large
So much monumental change!
Back to the future, indeed !
Should we be content entirely ?
Can we say, honestly, America now
is as great as the one we had created ?
Or as magic as the one of the Great Gatsby
during the Roaring Twenties ?
Is our country serving our citizen
as much as we ever wished ?
For a moment, a brisk one
the Founding Fathers find themselves
sitting around a glass table
wholly computerised, with videophony
and they can see a splendid
panorama of Washington
through wholly glassed scyscraper
The floors are glassed and plafonds too
a complete madness!
No, they prefer their mahogany table !
Of all of them only Thomas Jefferson
doesn't mind. But yes, they know
he has always been stranger than
any of them, a scientist and polymath
Their bewilderment gives way
to their concerns on wide ranging matters
so much aflicting the US citizen
What about the world affairs?
Is our country spreading enough liberty
across this troubled world ?

Oh, freedom, freedom, my love !
Freedom ... Svoboda....Azadi....
Wolnosc ... Freiheit .... Liberdade
Libération .... Libertad .... Libertà

The odd, uncommon gentleman with a hat
is holding me in the pocket of his coat
being a witness to all the things
I'm a witness of, common and uncommon
ordinary and out of the ordinary
He knows but I don't know
he is a travel companion of mine
I take a whirlwind around the world
Trying to see and experience
the wheels of fortune and misfortune
How much misery, unbelievable !
The world has turned upside down
it seems, igniting new and new events
the Arab Spring in the Middle East
collapse of the banks in the West
continuous poverty in the South
Al Qaeda, the Talibans, other terrorists
Occupy Wall Street, Occupy the World,
Anonymous Revolution worldwide
Rise of the fundamentalist Islamism
people jumping to each other throats
for no reason, luminous or not
Medias which don't write a word
about revolutionary events
terrorist attacks from Afghanistan
to the streets of Boston
discontent of people in Europe
and elsewhere, for some reasons
Tremendous crisis of identity
a growing pessimism, more hardship
Deteriorating planet conditions
shrinking Amazon rainforest
the same the rainforests of Africa
Melting Antarctica and the Arctic
global warming, higher levels of oceans
My goodness, what happened to us ?!
Where's these all going us bring to ?

Oh, freedom, freedom, my love !
Freedom ... Svoboda....Azadi....
Wolnosc ... Freiheit .... Liberdade
Libération .... Libertad .... Libertà

The gentleman with a hat, a stranger
knows what is on a summit agenda
The European leaders are meeting
in the grand Palace of Versailles
President François Hollande
chancellor Angela Merkel
other leaders from across the EU
They are trying their best
to reverse the wheel of time
and the wheel of fortune as well
which is down for the time being
What's going on can't anymore
the change is needed, urgently !
They meet in Paris, magnificient Paris !
Paris, the town of the Eiffel Tower
There is something great in the air
condensed from all the spirits
of the French people, of their wish
to rebuild their country and this world
their wish as much strong, demanding
as then when they had gifted
the Liberty Enlightening the World
to the American people
The statue representing Libertas
the Roman goddess of freedom

Oh, freedom, freedom, my love !
Freedom ... Svoboda....Azadi....
Wolnosc ... Freiheit .... Liberdade
Libération .... Libertad .... Libertà

As always so far
the unknown individual with a hat
a gentleman in New York
a sportsman in Monte Carlo
traveller through Sahara and beyond
a stranger appearing in so many places
whether in a fiery hit of a summer
or a frosty night of a winter
whether under a coat full of stars
or in a dreadful and intense storm
in the middle of the Atlantic ocean
The mysterious individual
ascending the magnificient Eiffel Tower
dining in the Statue of Liberty
looking at the the Great Sphinx of Giza
resting in the shadows of the Brandenburg Gate
listening to a a trumpet signal
from the Saint Mary Church in Cracow
strolling alongside the Palace of Westminster
He's deep in thought and no passerby
would be able to interrupt what's happening
in his mind, the Tolstoy's War and Peace
of all times and present one, indeed
And what he hears from within his mind
are numerous calls for peace and liberty
calls for everlasting freedoms
no place for tyrannies, no Shariah
yet authentical human rights for all
women and children rights especially
calls for separation of religion from state
secular parliamentary democracy
calls which will never cease in his mind.
He's ready to grant people their rights
their freedoms they yearn for
Liberties as mesmerizing
as the one on Liberty Island in New York Harbor
Yet he knows, and he trusts, the humankind
is able and shall be able to bring
upon changes they are yearning for.
No, he can't bring upon the changes
it's for them, the humans !
They will prove or fail ultimately
whether they are capable
to live, all of them, in a peace
and liberty they are yearning to so much.
The gentleman with the hat
walks down a little path
passing some houses on his way
the murmuring trees on both sides of the path
rustling leaves, singing birds
chirping gorgeous sparrows
beautiful parakeets, kin of macaws
scurrying squirrels climbing trees as easily
as Alpine climbers on a tiny hill
with their adventurous children.
The unknown gentleman is already seen
on the horizon and then disappears
as if blown from the table
but strangely, a piece of a paper
lies on a mahogany table
with a handwritten text:

Oh, freedom, freedom, my love !
Freedom ... Svoboda....Azadi....
Wolnosc ... Freiheit .... Liberdade
Libération .... Libertad .... libertà

A gentleman with a hat
Copyright © Thaddeus Hutyra , May, 2013
All Rights Reserved.

e-mail: [email protected]
 More here: http://www.funworldstar.com/GezichtvanGod/index.html