غزل شمارهٔ 1288

When union with the Beloved showed itself to Mans.¯ur, it was right that the gallows should bring him to the heart’s Origin.

I snatched a cap’s length from his robe; his cap’s length consumed my reason and head and foot.

I broke off a thorn from the top of the wall of his garden; what itching and questing is in my heart from that thorn of his!

Since one morning through his wine this heart became a lion-taker, it is only meet that it should be smitten by the monster of separation from him.

Though heaven’s colt appeared refractory and untamed, it was tethered and headstalled by the hand of His love.

Though reason is high-ranking and very learned, its gown and turban have been pawned for the cup of love.

Many a heart came seeking refuge from His love; dragging it along He dragged it to Him, and gave it no quarter.

One cold day a fur coat was in a river; I said to a naked man, “Jump in and seek, and bring it out!”

It was not a fur coat, it was a bear in the river; it had fallen in, and the current was carrying it along.

The man entered eagerly and reached the skin of the bear; that eagerness made him prisoner in the bear’s arms.

I said to him, “Let go the fur coat, come back! How long and far you have remained through toiling and battling with it!”

He said, “Go; the coat has so seized me that I have no hope of escape from its powerful clutches.

Every moment it immerses me a thousand times; there is no escape from its lover-squeezing claws.”

Silence, of stories enough; just give a hint; what need has the reason for long volumes?