غزل شمارهٔ 1898

A call came to the soul from the sphere of the Pleiades: “Come up, do not sit below like the dregs.”

No one remains so long on a journey apart from his homeland and former friends.

Well, you have heard the call, Return from that king and sweet emperor.

In this ruined waste owls are dwelling; what habitation have you fashioned, poor falcon?

What rest does he get, on whichever side he turns, who makes his mattress of thorns?

What bond is there between money-changer and counterfeiter? What relation is there between crow and falcon?

Why do you adorn with plaster a ruin which above is covered with paintings and beneath is a prison?

Why do you not adorn your soul with wisdom? For its every word is worth a hundred Chinas and M¯ach¯ıns;

That wisdom which is the source of disputation is not that wisdom which causes the soul to see God.

Become a jewel so that willy-nilly they will plant you altogether on the golden crown.

Be done with going back like a twisted foot; be as alif, sit single and upright.

Since meaning is a horse and words are as a saddle, say, how long will you draw along this saddle without the horse?

Throw clods at the love of men; you too are a man, but a man of clay;

The wedding of clay creature with clay creature brings a shower of clods and stones for a dowry.

Look at the tombs beneath the bricks, for you cannot tell apart their heads from their foundations.

O God, bring my soul safely to the souls by that road on which the family of Y¯as¯ın went;

Mingle our prayers with theirs, so that from us comes the prayer and from Thee the amen.

Grant that thy grace and loving kindness may be such that, as little as our good works may be, from Thee comes the “Well done.”

Bring us safely from lustfulness to reasonableness, unto the zenith above from this lower abode.