بخش 187 - جواب گفتن عاشق عاذلان را و تهدید‌کنندگان را

He said, “I am dropsical: the water draws me, though I know that the water too will kill me.

None afflicted with dropsy will flee from the water, even if it checkmate and ruin him two hundred times.

If my hands and belly become swollen, (yet) the passionate desire for the water will not abate (and depart) from me.

At the time when they ask me of my inward state, I say, ‘Would that the Sea were flowing within me!’

Let the water-skin, my belly, be burst by the waves of the water: if I die, my death is acceptable.

Wherever I see the water of a stream, jealousy comes over me (and I wish) that I might be in its place.

(With) hands (swollen) like a tambourine and belly like a drum, I am beating the drum of (I am proclaiming) my love for the water, as the rose (does).

If that Trusty Spirit spill my blood, I will drink draught on draught of blood, like the earth.

I am a blood-drinker, like the earth and like the embryo: (ever) since I became a lover I am (engaged) in this trade.

During the night I boil on the fire, like a kettle; (all) day till nightfall I drink blood, like the sand.

I repent that I set contrivance afoot (in order to escape) and fled from that which his anger desired.

Let him drive on (let him not restrain) his anger against my intoxicated soul: he is the Feast of the Sacrifice, and the lover is the buffalo (for slaughter).

Whether the buffalo sleep or whether it eat something, he nurtures (fattens) it for the Feast and the slaughter.

Deem me to be (as) the cow of Moses that gave life (to the murdered man): each limb of me is the (means of) raising from the dead every one that is (spiritually) free.

The cow of Moses was one offered in sacrifice: her smallest limb brought a murdered man to life.

At its touch the murdered man sprang up from his place—at the words spoken (by God), Strike him with part of her.

O my noble (friends), slaughter this cow (the fleshly soul), if ye desire to raise to life the spirits (possessed) of insight.

I died to the inorganic state and became endowed with growth, and (then) I died to (vegetable) growth and attained to the animal.

I died from animality and became Adam (man): why, then, should I fear? When have I become less by dying?

At the next remove I shall die to man, that I may soar and lift up my head amongst the angels;

And I must escape even from (the state of) the angel: everything is perishing except His Face.

Once more I shall be sacrificed and die to the angel: I shall become that which enters not into the imagination.

Then I shall become non-existence: non-existence saith to me, (in tones loud) as an organ, Verily, unto Him shall we return.

Know death to be (the thing signified by) what the (Mohammedan) community are agreed upon, namely, that the Water of Life is hidden in the (Land of) Darkness.

Grow from this river-bank, like the water-lily, greedy and craving for death as the sufferer from dropsy.

The water is death to him, and (yet) he is seeking the water and drinking it— and God best knoweth the right course.

Oh, the cold lover, clad in the felt (garment) of shame, who from fear of (losing) his life is fleeing from the Beloved!

O thou disgrace (even) to women, behold hundreds of thousands of souls clapping their hands (and rushing) towards the sword of His love!

Thou hast seen the river: spill thy jug in the river: how should the water take flight from the river?

When the water in the jug goes into the river-water, it disappears in it, and it becomes the river.

His (the lover's) attributes have passed away, and his essence remains: after this, he does not dwindle or become ill-favoured.

I have hanged myself on His palm-tree in excuse for having fled from Him.”