Original content

English translation

O you who are the pain and medicine for the soul and heart, You are that light which 'fire would scarcely touch.' From the lattice openings of a niche, Having nested on a blessed branch. You are a niche of light in the lamp of the body, Though you are close, you are extremely far. Break the glass and pour out your oil, Cling to the light of a brilliant star. What have you to do with East and West, Since the light of heaven is a fortress around you? O nightingale that speaks of secrets, Remove the lock from the chest of jewels. Like Jesus, become sweet-spoken in speech, Break the oyster shell and scatter pearls. Do not exult in your own beautiful voice, For there is sound in silk strings and flutes. The nightingale's beautiful singing exceeds yours, For it is drunk with its own sweet singing. Do not clamor so much over your hearing, For a rabbit can hear a sound from ten miles away. Do not attribute this grandeur and culture to your vision, For a sparrow can see for twenty leagues. Speak little of your imperfect sense of smell, For a mouse can smell a scent from a mile away. Do not consider your imagination to be an increase, For the hoopoe saw water through its imagination. If you are superior to all of those, it is because You are highly eloquent and possess pure knowledge. O drop that has chosen the heights, Having caught a scent of the ocean of eternity. Though you chose the heights over the ocean, Yet you reached your own perfection. When you went aloft from the ocean, You became a brilliant pearl for the oyster shell. Without traveling, you will not become a gem; Once you become ashes, you will not become a glowing ember. You traveled from the ocean toward the elements; How can a drop become a pearl without traveling? First, the raindrop made a journey, And then it filled the depths of the sea with pearls. If the gem remains hidden in the sea, It remains equal to the dust of the road. But when the gem emerges from the sea, It rises from beneath a basin full of gold. When the mulberry leaf traveled from its place, It emerged as brocade and satin. If travel did not have this outcome, Would the heavens have peace for a single breath? If travel did not possess such value, The new moon would not become a full moon through travel. O good, impetuous companion, do not contend; Rise for a moment from this framework of nature. Fly to the world of the placeless, Become for a time landless and timeless. For in timelessness, a hundred years and a single breath Are both equal before you. A moment there is a hundred years; The future and the past become the present. Yet there is no 'present' in time, For that meaning is not celestial. You will not find the end of the rotation of epochs, Nor will you see the revolution of the turning heavens. When the heavens become like the light of the eye, These things will no longer be like those. There is neither deficiency there nor perfection, Neither past, nor future, nor present. Since that Presence is far from both worlds, Therefore it is far from time and space. In a single breath, the Mahdi and Adam exist, Neither the former is more than the latter, nor the latter less than the former. When you exchange this earth for the spiritual present, You will see eternity as one with pre-eternity. Since there is neither 'how' nor 'how many' there, Eternity is joined with pre-eternity. I know for certain that both are but one; There is no doubt in this meaning for the researcher. O juggler, player of tricks, Cast off the veil from the puppet of meaning. Perform a swift-handed trick like a conjurer; Drink a wine and act wildly. Wipe the dust from the mirror of the pure soul; Empty the cup and show it clean. From the twist-upon-twist bond of the world, You have become imprisoned in the corner of the house. If you show your face from behind the curtain, You will burn the seven ancient spheres. You are a treasure, and the nine heavens are your middle; Emerge from the four walls of time. Break the talisman and bond of deliverance too; Shatter the door and vestibule of existing things. You are a treasure but bound in a talisman; You are a soul but in the prison of the body. Pack your bags from this prison of the world; Entirely release your heart from the severe bond. You remained between the cesspool and greed; You do not know what kept you back. You are excused, for you have no awareness, For you do not have here what you desire. Since you do not find the wine of the libertines from the Truth, It is no wonder if you do not find that wine. O bird that knows wisdom, What better nest will you find than this? Spread your wings in the flight of meanings; Open the door of the palace of seven doors. When you pass beyond the four and the nine in flight, Pass beyond yourself and open your eyes to the Truth. Why did you become deceived by the place of the demon? You became mad, you became distracted. Since you know that you must depart quickly, There will be no return. What will you do in the place of deceit and trickery? Pass beyond the world and leave the devil. Know that the world is the fief of the devil; The world is the house of deceit and trickery. Give his house back to him and go; Cast your gaze upon the threshold and go. Since the devil has nothing to do with your place, You too pass beyond his place in an orderly way. When you reach that rose garden from this furnace, Assume as if you never saw this furnace. First, walk in the world of holiness, And then take steps in the world of intimacy. When you sit upon the green silk, You will be the whole, and you will not see yourself. When you pass beyond so many veils and traps, For a time you will become a guide upon that roof. Your eye will open to the sun of the world; The door to the ocean of the soul will open to you. When you become a guide, look into yourself; Know yourself and resolve for the court. For when you become self-knowing, you become God-knowing; Thereafter you will quickly become one of the leaders. If your existence brings a veil before you, It will bring you back to yourself from that state for a moment. When your existence does not show itself before Him, Selfless, you will remain at His door. Another veil will come before you; Selfhood will come back to itself in selflessness. When it becomes aware, pleasure will appear, From joy it will clamor once more. Like a moth it throws itself upon the fire, So that its existence may be removed from before it. When the veil of its existence is lifted, Once more its intoxication will bring power. Sometimes it remains falling, sometimes rising, Sometimes soulless, sometimes with soul. Sometimes in pleasure, sometimes in annihilation, Sometimes in separation, sometimes in subsistence. I will tell you this secret openly: What is grief at times, and what is playfulness with you at times. Eternity has no connection with temporal origin, And if there is connection, there is no mingling. Now, O shadow-nurtured sun, Who told you to turn away from the nurse's side? When you hasten into the temporal world, What will you find of the light of the third world? O bird, come out of this trap, Walk for a moment in the meadow of eternity. Since your existence has become a heart for secrets, Having benefited from the branch of love. Turn your face from the wall of the end; Go down in pursuit of the secrets at last. Every atom of the universe that you see, If you sit in pursuit of it, That atom will appear so clearly on the path That it will become a light from the lights of the Court. Every atom will become like a sun; A veil will appear from a veil. Secrets emerge from veils, A path far and whose end is invisible. No one ever finds its front, Nor ever finds its limit or end. Thus has Tahir the pure-spirited spoken: 'I remained in need for forty years.' From each and every atom there is a way to the Friend, But the world is black to your eyes. Your nature is a veil and gave you many pretexts, So that the unworthy may be distinguished from the worthy. If you have worthiness on this path, Go from each and every atom to the Court. If there were no gaze upon you from the leaders, There would be no journey from your side toward yourself. But since the light of the leaders is your guide, Why is this laziness in your essence? See at last, if you possess presence, That every moment a light arrives from the Friend. If the Friend turns His gaze away from you, You will not find any belt even for a dinar. If you polish the mirror of the heart, A door will open in the chamber of your heart. A door which, when it opens to the Beloved, The heavens are not fit to be its doorkeepers. You need three things from both worlds: To know, to act, to become the very thing. When your knowledge becomes the very essence through worship, Your heart will become the mirror of both worlds.