Jalal and Hegel

One night I was engaged in teasing out the knots of Hegel’s philosophic thought;

Which tore the veil of transient, finite things, laying bare the infinite, the absolute;

And whose conception’s grand, imposing range made the world shrink into a tiny mote.

When I plunged into that tempestuous sea, my mind became just like a storm-tossed boat.

But soon a spell lulled me to slumber and shut out the finite and the infinite.

My inner vision sharpened, I observed an old man whose face was a godly sight:

The man whose spirit’s glory, like the sun, has made the sky of Rum and Syria bright.

Whose flame in this benighted wilderness shines like a path-illuminating light;

From whose words meanings grow spontaneously like tulips riotously breaking out.

‘You sleep’, said he. ‘Awake, awake: To ply a boat in a mirage is folly’s height.

You’re bidding wisdom guide you on love’s path! You’re looking for the sun by candle-light!’