Original content

English translation

Sari al-Saqati — may God the Exalted sanctify his secret — assigned Junayd a task, and when Junayd carried it out in accordance with his wish, Sari threw him a scrap of paper on which was written: 'I heard a caravan-driver chanting in the desert, saying:'

I weep — and what makes you know what makes me weep? I weep for fear that you may part from me, And sever my cord and forsake me.

He says (in Persian):

I weep blood — what should I conceal from you? For it is for your sake that I keep these two eyes weeping. Though I have a heart made joyful by union, I bear a hundred brands upon it from the dread of separation.

And Junayd — may his secret be sanctified — also says: one day I came into Sari's house, and he was reciting this verse and weeping:

Neither by day nor by night is there any joy for me, So I care not whether the night grows long or short.

Neither by night nor by day am I free of moaning and sighing; Let my night be long if it will, or let it be short.