How the Beloved caressed the senseless lover, that he might return to his senses.
The Sadr-i Jahan, from kindness, was
drawing him little by little from senselessness into (the capacity for) clear expression.
4665. The Prince
cried into his ear,
“0
beggar, I bring gold to scatter
o’er thee; spread
out your skirt.
Thy spirit, which was quivering (with distress) in separation. from me—since I have come to protect it, how has it
fled?
O you who have suffered heat
and cold in separation from me, come to yourself from selflessness
and return!”
The domestic
fowl, in the
manner of a host,
foolishly brings
a camel to her house.
When the camel set foot in the hen’s house,
the house
was destroyed
and the roof
fell in.
4670. The hen’s house is our (weak) intelligence and understanding the good intelligence is a seeker
of God’s she-camel
When the she-camel
put her head into its water
and clay, neither its
clay remained there (in
existence) nor its soul and heart.
Pre-eminence in love made
Man overweening: because of this desire for excess he
is
very unjust
and very ignorant.
He is ignorant, and in
this difficult
chase the hare
is clasping a lion in
his arms. How would he
clasp the lion in his arms,
if he knew and saw the lion?
4675. He is unjust
to himself and to his own soul: behold an in-justice that bears away the ball
(the palm) from (all) justices!
His ignorance is the teacher
to (all) knowledges, his injustice has become
the right way for (all)
justices.
He (the Sadr-i Jahán)
took his (the lover’s)
hand, saying, “This man whose
breath has departed will (only) then come
(to life) when I give him (spiritual)
breath.
When this man
whose body is dead shall become l through Me, (then) it will
be
My spirit that
turns its face towards Me.
By means of this spirit I make him possessed of high estate:(only) the spirit that I give sees
(experiences) My bounty.
4680. The unfamiliar
(unprivileged) spirit does not see the face
of the Beloved:
(none sees it)
except that spirit whose origin is from His dwelling-place.
Butcher-like, I breathe
upon this dear
friend, in order
that his goodly inward part may leave
the skin.”
He said, “0 spirit that
have fled from tribulation, We have opened
the door to union with Us;
welcome!
O you whose selflessness and intoxication is (caused by) Our Self,
O you whose being is incessantly (derived) from
Our Being,
Now, without
lip, I tell
you the old mysteries
anew: hearken!
4685. (I tell you silently)
because those (bodily)
lips are
fleeing from (are
unable to apprehend) this Breath
(Word); it is breathed
forth on the lip (bank) of the hidden River.
At this moment open
the ear of earlessness for the sake of
‘(hearing) the mystery
of God doeth
what He -willeth.”
When he
began to hear
the call to union, little ‘by little, the dead
man began to stir.
He (the lover of God)
is
not less than the earth
which at the
zephyr’s blandishments
puts on (a garment of) green and
lifts up
it head
from death;
He is not less than the seminal water
from which at the (Divine)
bidding there are
born Josephs
with faces like the
sun;
4690.He is not less than
a wind
(from which) at the command
“Be!” peacocks and sweet-
voiced birds came to
being in the
(bird’s) womb
He is not less than the mountain of rock which by parturition brought forth the she-camel that
brought forth a she-camel
Leave all this
behind. Did not the substance of non
bring forth, and will it not bring forth
continually,
a (whole)Universe?
He (the man of Bukhárá)
sprang up and quivered
and whirled once or twice (in
dance)
joyously, joyously; (then) fell to worship.
How the senseless lover came to himself and turned his face in praise and thanksgiving to the Beloved.
He said, “O
‘Anqa of God, (you who
art) the place
of the spirit’s circling flight, ( give)
thanks that you hart come back from yonder mountain
of Qaf.
4695. O Siráffl (Seraphiel) of Love’s resurrection place O Love of love and O Heart’s-desire of
love,
I desire, as the first gift of honour you wilt give me,
that you lay yours ear on my window.
Albeit through
(your) purity you knowest my
feelings, lend ear to my words,
O cherisher of
your slave.
Hundreds of thousands of times, O
unique Prince, did my wits fly away in longing for your ear—
That hearing of yours and that listening of yours, and those life-quickening smiles of thine;
4700. That hearkening unto my lesser and greater (matters),
(and unto) the beguilements of my evil-thinking (suspicious) soul.
Then my false coins,
which are well-known to you, you didst accept
as (though they were) genuine money; For the sake of the boldness (importunity)
of
one (who was) impudent and deluded, O you beside
whose clemency (all) clemencies are (but) a mote!
Firstly, hear that when I abandoned (your)
net the first and the last {this world and the next) shot
away (disappeared)
from before me;
Secondly, hear,
O loving Prince,
that I sought long, (but) there
was no second to thee;
4705. Thirdly, since I have
gone away from you, it is as
though I have said, ‘the third of
three’
Fourthly, forasmuch as my cornfield is burnt-ups, I do not know the-fifth (linger)
from the fourth
Wherever you findest blood on the sods,
(if) you investigate, it will certainly (prove
to) be
(blood) from mine
eye.
My words are (as) the thunder, and this noise
and moaning
demands of-the cloud that it should rain upon the earth.
Between words and tears I continue
(in doubt) whether I should weep or speak: hew shall I do?
4710. If I
speak, the weeping will be lost; and if I weep, how shall I render thanks
and praise?
Heart’s blood is
falling from mine
eye, O King: see what has befallen me from mine eye!”
The emaciated man said this
and began to weep (so violently) that
both base and noble
wept for him.
So many
ecstatic cries ca up from
his heart (that) the people of Bukhára made a ring around
him.
(He was) speaking
crazily, weeping crazily,
laughing crazily: men and
women, small and great were bewildered.
4715. The (whole) city, too, shed tears in conformity with him: men and women were gathered together as (at) the
Resurrection.
At that
moment the heaven
was saying to the
earth, “If you
have never seen
the Resurrection,
behold it (now)!”
The (intellect
(was) bewildered,
saying, “What is love and what is ecstasy? (I know not) whether
separation from .Him or union with Him is the more marvellous.”
The sky read the letter
(announcement) of Resurrection (and was so distraught that) it rent its
garment up to the Milky Way.
Love bath estrangement with
(is a stranger
to) the two worlds:
in it are two-and-seventy
madnesses.
4720. It is exceedingly hidden, and (only)
its bewilderment is manifest the soul of the spiritual sultans is pining for it
Its religion is
other than (that of) the two-and-seventy sects: beside it the throne of Kings is
(but) a splint-bandage.
At the
time of the sama’ Love’s minstrel strikes up this (strain): “Servitude is chains and lordship
headache.”
Then what is Love? The
Sea of Not-being:
there the foot of the intellect is shattered’ Servitude and sovereignty are known:
loverhood is concealed by these two veils.
4725. Would that Being
had a tongue; that it might remove the veils
from existent beings! O breath
of (phenomenal) existence, whatsoever words
you mayest utter, know that thereby
you have bound another veil upon it (the mystery). .
That utterance
and (that) state (of
existence) are
the bane of (spiritual) perception: to wash
away blood
with blood is absurd, absurd.
Since I am familiar
with His frenzied ones,
day
and night I am
breathing forth (the
secrets of
Love) in the cage (of phenomenal existence).
You art mightily drunken and senseless and distraught: yesternight on which side have you
slept, O (my) soul?
4730. Beware, beware! Take heed lest you
utter a breath!
First spring up and seek a trusted
friend.
You art a lover and intoxicated, and your tongue (is) loosed!
—God! God! you art
(like) the camel on the
water-spout’! When the tongue
tells of His mystery and coquetry, Heaven chants (the prayer),
“O You that art goodly in covering!
What covering (can there be)? The fire is in the wool cotton
whilst you art covering
it up, it is
(all the) more
manifest.
When I endeavour to hide His (Love’s)
secret, He lifts up His head,
like a banner, saying,
‘Look, here am I!”
4735. In despite of me He seizes both my ears, saying, “O scatter-brain, how wilt you cover
it Cover it (if you canst)!”
I say to Him,
“Begone! Though you have bubbled up (have become fervid),
(yet)
you art (both)
manifest and concealed, like the soul.”
He says, “This body of mine is imprisoned
in the jar, (but) like wine I am
clapping hands (making a merry noise) at the
banquet.”
I say to Him,
“Go ere you art
put in pawn (confinement) lest the bane
of intoxication befall
(you).”
He says, “I befriend
the
day with
(my) delicious cup until the evening-prayer.
4740. When evening
comes and steals my cup, I will
say to it, ’Give (it) back, for my
evening has not come.”
Hence the
Arabs applied
the
same mudam to wine, because the
wine-drinker is never
sated.
Love makes the wine of realisation to bubble: He is the cup-
bearer to the şiddiq (true lover) in secret.
When you seek (the reality)
with good help
(from God), the water
(essence) of the
spirit is the
wine, and the body is the flagon.
When He increases the wine of His help,
the
potency of the wine
bursts the flagon.
4745. The water (the spirit) becomes the Cup-bearer, and the
water (is) also the
drunken man. Tell not how! And Go best knoweth
the right.
It is the
radiance of the Cup-bearer that
entered into the must: the must
bubbled up and
began to dance and waxed strong.
On this matter, ask the heedless (sceptic), “When did you (ever)
see must like this?”
To every one
who has knowledge it is (self-evident) without
reflection, that together
with the person disturbed there is a Disturber.
Story of the lover who had been long separated (from his beloved) and had suffered
much tribulation.
A certain youth was
madly enamoured
of a woman: the
fortune of union
was
not granted to him.
4750. Love tortured
him exceedingly on the
earth: why,
in sooth, does Love bear
hatred (to the lover)
from the first?
Why is Love murderous from the
first, so that
he who is an outsider runs away?
Whenever he sent a messenger
to the woman,
the messenger
because of jealousy
would become a highwayman (barring the way
against him);
And if his secretary
wrote (a
letter to be sent)
to the woman,
his delegate (messenger)
would read the letter (to
her) with tashíf;
And if in good faith
he made the
zephyr his envoy, that zephyr would be darkened
by a (cloud
of) dust.
4755. If he
sewed the letter on the wing of a bird, the bird's wing would be
burnt by the ardour of the
letter.
The (Divine) jealousy
barred (all) the ways of
device and
broke the banner
of the army of cogitation.
At first, expectation was
the comforting friend
of (his) sorrow;
at last, there broke
him—who?
Even (the same) expectation.
Sometimes he would say,
“This is an
irremediable affliction”; sometimes he would say,
“No, it is the life of my spirit.”
Sometimes (self-)
existence
would lift up a head
from
him (appear in him);
sometimes he would eat of the fruit of non-existence.
4760. When this (bodily) nature became cold (irksome and
useless) to him, the
fountain of union (with the
beloved) would boil hotly.
When he put up
with (contented himself with) the
unprovidedness of exile, the provision of
unprovidedness hastened towards him.
The wheat-ears of his thought were purged
of chaff: he became, like the moon, a guide
to
the night-travellers.
Oh, there is many a
parrot that speaks
though it is
mute; oh, there
is many a sweet-spirited one
whose face is sour.
Go to the
graveyard, sit
awhile in silence,
and behold those eloquent silent
ones;
4765. But, if you see that their dust is of one colour, (yet) their active (spiritual) state is not uniform.
The fat and flesh of living persons is uniform,
(yet) one is sad, another glad.
Until you hear
their words, what should
you know (of their
feelings), inasmuch as their (inward)
state is hidden from
you?
You may hear words—(cries of) háy, húy; (but) how will
you
perceive the (inward) state that has a hundred folds?
Our (human) figure
is uniform, (yet) endued with contrary qualities: likewise their dust is
uniform, (yet) their spirits are diverse.
4770. Similarly, voices are uniform
(as such), (but) one is sorrowful, and another
full of charms.
On the battle-field you may hear
the cry of horses;
in strolling round (a garden)
you may hear
the cry of birds.
One (voice proceeds) from hate, and another from
harmony; one from pain, and another from joy.
Whoever is remote from (ignorant
of) their (inward) state, to him the voices are uniform.
One tree is moved by blows of the axe, another tree
by the breeze of dawn.
4775. Much error befell
me from (I was
greatly deceived by)
the
worthless pot, because
the pot was boiling (while) covered by the lid.
The fervour and
savour of every
one says to
you, “Come”— the fervour
of sincerity and the fervour of imposture and hypocrisy.
If you have not
the
scent (discernment
derived) from the
soul that recognises the
face (reality), go, get for yourself a (spiritual) brain (sense) that
recognises the
scent.
The brain (sense) that
haunts yon Rose-garden—it
is it that makes
bright the eyes of (all) Jacobs. Come now,
relate what happened
to
that heart-sick (youth), for we
have left the man of
Bukhárá
far behind, O son.
How the lover found his beloved; and a discourse showing that the seeker is a finder, for he who shall do as much good as the weight of an ant shall see it (in the end).
4780. (It happened) that
for seven years that youth was
(engaged) in search
and seeking:
from (cherishing) the phantasy of union he became like a phantom.
(If) the shadow
(protection) of God be over the head of the servant
(of God), the seeker at last will be a finder.
The Prophet said that
when you knock at a door, at last a head
will come forth
from that door.
When you sit (wait) on the
road of a certain
person, at last you will see also the face
of a certain person[#]
When, every day,
you keep
digging the earth
from a pit, at last you will arrive at the pure
water.
4785. (Even) if you may not believe (it), all know
this, (that) one day you will reap
whatsoever you
are
sowing.
You struck the
stone (flint)
against the
iron (steel): the fire did
not flash out!
This may not be;
or if
it
be (so), it is rare.
He to whom felicity and
salvation are not apportioned
(by God)—his mind
regards naught but
the
rarities.
(He says) that such
and such a one sowed seed
and had no crop,
while that (other)
one bore away an oyster-shell (from the sea),
and
the shell had no
pearl (within it).
(He says that in the cases of) Bal‘am son of Bá‘úr and the accursed Iblís, their acts of worship and their
religion availed them
not.
4790. The hundreds of thousands of prophets and travellers on the Way do not come into the mind of that evil-thinking man.
He takes these two (examples) which produce
(spiritual) darkness: how should (his)
ill
fate put aught but this in his heart?
Oh, there is many a one that
eats bread with a glad heart, and it
becomes the death
of him: it sticks in
his
gullet.
Go, then, O ill-fated man,
do not eat bread
at all, lest you fall like him into bale and
woe!
Hundreds of thousands of folk are eating loaves of bread and gaining strength and nourishing the
(vital) spirit.
4795. How have you fallen into that rare
(calamity), unless you art deprived (of blessedness)
and art
born a fool?
He (the ill-fated man) has forsaken this world full of sunshine and moonlight and has plunged his
head into the pit,
Saying, “If it is true,
then where is the
radiance?” Lift up
your head from the pit and look,
O
miserable wretch!
The whole world,
east and west, obtained
that light, (but)
whilst you art in the pit it will not shine upon you.
Leave the
pit, go
to the palace
and the vineyards; do not
wrangle here, know that
quarrelling is unlucky.
4800. Beware! Do not say, “Mark you, such and such a one sowed seed, and in such and such a
year the locusts devoured
what he had sown.
Why, then, should I sow? for
there is danger
in this respect. Why
should I scatter this corn(-
seed) from
my hand?”
And (meanwhile)
he
who did not neglect to sow and
labour
fills his barn (with
grain), to your confusion.
Since he (the lover) was patiently knocking
at
a door, at last one
day
he obtained
a meeting in
private.
From fear of the
night-patrol he sprang
by night into the orchard:
(there) he found his
beloved, (radiant) as candle and lamp.
4805. At that
moment he said
to the Maker of the means (by which he had attained to his desire), “O God, have mercy on the night-patrol!
Unbeknown (to me),
You have created the means:
from the gate of Hell
You have brought me
to Paradise.
You have
made this
affair (dread of the night-patrol) a means, to the
end that I may not
hold
(even) a single
thorn in contempt.”
In (consequence of) the fracture of a leg God
bestows a
wing; likewise from the
depths of the pit
He opens a door (of
escape).
(God saith), “Do not consider whether
you art on a tree or in a pit:
consider Me, for I am the
Key of the Way.”
4810. If you
wish (to read)
the rest of
this tale, seek
(it), O my brother, in the Fourth
Book.
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