بخش 226 - با خویش آمدن عاشق بیهوش و روی آوردن به ثنا و شکر معشوق

He said, “O ‘Anqa of God, (thou who art) the place of the spirit’s circling flight, ( give) thanks that thou hart come back from yonder mountain of Qaf.

O Siráffl (Seraphiel) of Love’s resurrection place O Love of love and O Heart’s-desire of love,

I desire, as the first gift of honour thou wilt give me, that thou lay thine ear on my window.

Albeit through (thy) purity thou knowest my feelings, lend ear to my words, O cherisher of thy slave.

Hundreds of thousands of times, O unique Prince, did my wits fly away in longing for thy ear—

That hearing of thine and that listening of thine, and those life-quickening smiles of thine;

That hearkening unto my lesser and greater (matters), (and unto) the beguilements of

my evil-thinking (suspicious) soul.

Then my false coins, which are well-known to thee, thou didst accept as (though they were) genuine money; For the sake of the boldness (importunity) of one (who was) impudent and deluded, O thou beside whose clemency (all) clemencies are (but) a mote!

Firstly, hear that when I abandoned (thy) net the first and the last {this world and the next) shot away (disappeared) from before me;

Secondly, hear, O loving Prince, that I sought long, (but) there was no second to thee;

Thirdly, since I have gone away from thee, ‘tis as though I have said, ‘the third of three’

Fourthly, forasmuch as my cornfield is burnt-ups, I do not know the-fifth (linger) from the fourth

Wherever thou findest blood on the sods, (if) thou investigate, it will certainly (prove to) be (blood) from mine eye.

My words are (as) the thunder, and this noise and moaning demands of-the cloud that it should rain upon the earth.

Between words and tears I continue (in doubt) whether I should weep or speak: hew shall I do?

If I speak, the weeping will be lost; and if I weep, how shall I render thanks and praise?

Heart’s blood is falling from mine eye, O King: see what has befallen me from mine eye!”

The emaciated man said this and began to weep (so violently) that both base and noble wept for him.

So many ecstatic cries ca up from his heart (that) the people of Bukhára made a ring around him.

(He was) speaking crazily, weeping crazily, laughing crazily: men and women, small and great were bewildered.

The (whole) city, too, shed tears in conformity with him: men and women were gathered together as (at) the Resurrection.

At that moment the heaven was saying to the earth, “If thou hast never seen the Resurrection, behold it (now)!”

The (intellect (was) bewildered, saying, “What is love and what is ecstasy? (I know not) whether separation from .Him or union with Him is the more marvellous.”

The sky read the letter (announcement) of Resurrection (and was so distraught that) it rent its garment up to the Milky Way.

Love bath estrangement with (is a stranger to) the two worlds: in it are two-and-seventy madnesses.

It is exceedingly hidden, and (only) its bewilderment is manifest the soul of the spiritual sultans is pining for it

Its religion is other than (that of) the two-and-seventy sects: beside it the throne of Kings is (but) a splint-bandage.

At the time of the sama’ Love’s minstrel strikes up this (strain): “Servitude is chains and lordship headache.”

Then what is Love? The Sea of Not-being: there the foot of the intellect is shattered’

Servitude and sovereignty are known: loverhood is concealed by these two veils.

Would that Being had a tongue; that it might remove the veils from existent beings!

O breath of (phenomenal) existence, whatsoever words thou mayest utter, know that thereby thou hast bound another veil upon it (the mystery). .

That utterance and (that) state (of existence) are the bane of (spiritual) perception: to wash away blood with blood is absurd, absurd.

Since I am familiar with His frenzied ones, day and night I am breathing forth (the secrets of Love) in the cage (of phenomenal existence).

Thou art mightily drunken and senseless and distraught: yesternight on which side hast thou slept, O (my) soul?

Beware, beware! Take heed lest thou utter a breath! First spring up and seek a trusted friend.

Thou art a lover and intoxicated, and thy tongue (is) loosed!

—God! God! thou art (like) the camel on the water-spout’! When the tongue tells of His mystery and coquetry, Heaven chants (the prayer), “O Thou that art goodly in covering!

What covering (can there be)? The fire is in the wool cotton whilst thou art covering it up, it is (all the) more manifest.

When I endeavour to hide His (Love’s) secret, He lifts up His head, like a banner, saying, ‘Look, here am I!”

In despite of me He seizes both my ears, saying, “O scatter-brain, how wilt thou cover it Cover it (if thou canst)!”

I say to Him, “Begone! Though thou hast bubbled up (hast become fervid), (yet) thou art (both) manifest and concealed, like the soul.”

He says, “This body of mine is imprisoned in the jar, (but) like wine I am clapping hands (making a merry noise) at the banquet.”

I say to Him, “Go ere thou art put in pawn (confinement) lest the bane of intoxication befall (thee).”

He says, “I befriend the day with (my) delicious cup until the evening-prayer.

When evening comes and steals my cup, I will say to it, ’Give (it) back, for my evening hath not come.”

Hence the Arabs applied the same mudam to wine, because the wine-drinker is never sated.

Love makes the wine of realisation to bubble: He is the cup- bearer to the şiddiq (true lover) in secret.

When you seek (the reality) with good help (from God), the water (essence) of the spirit is the wine, and the body is the flagon.

When He increases the wine of His help, the potency of the wine bursts the flagon.

The water (the spirit) becomes the Cup-bearer, and the water (is) also the drunken man. Tell not how! And Go best knoweth the right.

‘Tis the radiance of the Cup-bearer that entered into the must: the must bubbled up and began to dance and waxed strong.

On this matter, ask the heedless (sceptic), “When did you (ever) see must like this?”

To every one who hath knowledge it is (self-evident) without reflection, that together with the person disturbed there is a Disturber.