غزل شمارهٔ 2498

Passion for that Beloved brought me out of learning and reciting so that I became mad and distracted.

Once I took my way earnestly to prayer rug and mosque; I put on the shirt of abstinence to increase good works.

Love entered the mosque and said, “Right-guided master, rend the bond of being; why are you in bondage to prayer?

“Let not your heart tremble before the blow of my sword; lay down your neck, if you wish to journey from knowledge to vision.

“Do full justice to ruffianism, if you are a dissolute and drunkard; if you are lovely and beautiful, why do you remain behind the veil?

“Lovely ones may not flee from exhibiting their features; how can idols suffer not to indulge in coquetry and face decoration?

“Now through your face you have bestowed love and impatience on reason, now through your eyes played the Messiah to the sick;

“Now with your tresses given the image of God’s cord to the believer, now through twisted curls given a cross to the Christian.

“If you have beheld your beauty which excels the sun, why have you withered and decayed in this dusty prison?

“Why do you not become refreshed by the graces of the heart’s springtime? Why do you not laugh like the rose and pound ambergris?

“Why do you not ferment like wine in the vat of this world, that the fermenting may bring you forth from this enameled lid?

“Why is your Jacob denied the lighting of your lovely face? Joseph of the lovely ones, why do you languish in the bottom of the well?

“Behold your own beauty, ignorant one, in the light of the souls of the Pegs [aut¯ads], for the believer is the mirror of the believer in time of loneliness.

“The earth sees its secrets in the face of the garden, ‘What through its beauty and charm I have in my heart.’

“The rock sees its secret in the ruby and turquoise, ‘I have a treasure in my heart yearning to emerge.’

“The dark iron sees its heart in the mirror, ‘I am recipient to light, after all things bright.’

“When nonentities see how nonentities have been changed, they come into existence to enjoy a meeting.

“Would the fly have gone around to every dunghill had it known that by effort and virtue the ‘Anq¯a comes out of its composition?

“When the Sufihas become ‘son of the moment,’ he does not become an idle person tomorrow; that person soon becomes idle who is a fool and a procrastinator.

“Sit among sweethearts if you are not immature and impotent; use yourself to lovers, my friend, do not wander about everywhere.

“Fish, it has become certain to you from the sea behind your back; turn your face round and go back, since you are a sea creature.

“Hear the call of Return, go to the water of life; enter the water and go gaily, why do you linger in water and clay?

“With heart and soul you have gone to a place where neither soul nor heart remain; on your own foot you have gone to a place where you bite your own hand.

“Become gold through the sun of eternity; go not to another’s gold, for love of gold makes you yellow, though your face is silvery.

“The world says to you, ‘Why have you become my slave? After all you are born of the king, it is I who should be your slave.’

“The sea says to you, ‘I shall be your steed, rather than that you should be my steed, acting as porter and water-carrier.’

“Be silent, I was like you too, but I kept silence and found rest; if you listen to me, you will be silent too, and find rest.”