Though long enough I have sat in fire up to my neck, now I am up to my neck in the water of union with the Beloved.
I said, “I am immersed in your graces up to my neck.” The Darling was not content with me up to the neck.
He said, “Make your head a foot, descend into the depths of love, for this affair does not come out right only up to the neck.”
I said, “My head, Beloved, is your shoe; only be content, my two eyes, with up to my neck this time.”
He said, “You are less than a thorn which was up to the neck in earth for nine months waiting for the rose.”
I said, “What is the thorn? For the sake of your rosebed I have sat often in blood up to my neck like the rose.”
He said, “Through love you have escaped from the world of allurement, where you were struggling impotently up to your neck.
“You escaped from the world, but not from yourself; your self-existence is a disgrace, and this disgrace is up to your neck.
“Lay not traps cunningly, give up trickery; the trickmaster remains in his own trap up to the neck.
“The trap of this world is a trap through which kings and lions have remained like dogs in the carrion up to the neck.
“There is a stranger trap than this, through which you may see the reasonless fallen up to the ankle, the prudent up to the neck.”
Enough of speech, now that breath is cut off; after all, speech does not reach up to the neck from choking.
