Part 3

Mankind, like waterfowl, are sprung from the sea--the Sea of Soul; Risen from that Sea, why should the bird make here his home? Nay, we are pearls in that Sea, therein we all abide; Else, why does wave follow wave from the Sea of Soul? 'Tis the time of Union's attainment, 'tis the time of Eternity's beauty, 'Tis the time of favour and largesse, 'tis the Ocean of perfect purity. The billow of largesse hath appeared, the thunder of the Sea hath arrived, The morn of blessedness hath dawned. Morn? No, 'tis the Light of God.

THE BEAUTY OF THE BELOVED

O Beloved, spiritual beauty is very fair and glorious, But Thine own beauty and loveliness is another thing. O Thou who art years describing Spirit, Show one quality that is equal to His Essence. Light waxes in the eye at the imagination of Him, But in presence of His Union it is dimmed. I stand open-mouthed in veneration of that beauty: "God is most great" is on my heart's lips every moment. The heart hath gotten an eye constant in desire of Thee. O how that desire feeds heart and eye! 'Tis slave-caressing Thy Love has practised; Else, where is the heart worthy of that Love? Every heart that has slept one night in Thy air Is like radiant day.

THE WATER OF ETERNAL LIFE

Every form you see has its archetype in the placeless world; If the form perished, no matter, since its Original is everlasting. Every fair shape you have seen, every deep saying you have heard, Be not cast down that it perished; for that is not so. Whereas the Spring-head is undying, its branch gives water continually; Since neither can cease, why are you lamenting? Conceive the Soul as a fountain, and these created things as rivers: While the Fountain flows, the rivers run from it. Put grief out of your head and keep quaffing this River-water; Do not think of the Water failing, for this Water is without end.

EARTHLY LOVE AND THE LOVE DIVINE

'Twere better that the spirit which wears not true Love as a garment Had not been: its being is but shame. * * * * * * * *¨* * * * * * * Without the dealing of Love there is no entrance to the Beloved. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 'Tis Love and the Lover that live to all Eternity; Set not thy heart on aught else; 'tis only borrowed, How long wilt thou embrace a dead beloved? Embrace the Soul which is embraced by nothing. What was born of spring dies in autumn, Love's rose-plot hath no aiding from the early spring.

"THE HOUSE OF LOVE"

This is the Lord of Heaven, who resembles Venus and the moon, This is the House of Love, which has no bound or end. Like a mirror, the soul has received Thy image in its heart; The tip of Thy curl has sunk into my heart like a comb. Forasmuch as the women cut their hands in Joseph's presence, Come to me, O soul, for the Beloved is in the midst.

LOVE'S DESIRE

Show Thy face, for I desire the orchard and the rose-garden; Ope Thy lips, for I desire sugar in plenty. O sun, show forth Thy face from the veil of cloud, For I desire that radiant glowing countenance.

THE FINDING OF THE BELOVED

I was on that day when the Names were not, Nor any sign of existence endowed with name, By me Names and Named were brought to view On the day when there was not "I" and "We," For a sign, the tip of the Beloved's curl became a centre of revelation; As yet the tip of that curl was not. Cross and Christians, from end to end, I surveyed; He was not on the Cross. I went to the idol-temple, to the ancient pagoda; No trace was visible there. I went to the mountains of Herāt and Candahār; I looked; He was not in that hill-and-dale. * * * * * * * *¨* * * * * * * I gazed into my own heart; There I saw Him; He was nowhere else.

GOD ONLY

"None but God has contemplated the beauty of God." This eye and that lamp are two lights, each individual, When they came together, no one distinguished them.

THE MOON-SOUL AND THE SEA

At morning-tide a moon appeared in the sky, And descended from the sky and gazed on me. Like a falcon which snatches a bird at the time of hunting, That moon snatched me up and coursed over the sky. When I looked at myself, I saw myself no more, Because in that moon my body became by grace even as soul. When I travelled in soul, I saw naught save the moon, Till the secret of the Eternal Theophany was revealed. The nine spheres of heaven were all merged in that moon, The vessel of my being was completely hidden in the sea. The sea broke into waves, and again Wisdom rose And cast abroad a voice; so it happened and thus it befell. Foamed the sea, and at every foam-fleck Something took figure and something was bodied forth. Every foam-fleck of body, which received a sign from that sea, Melted straightway and turned to spirit in this Ocean.

LIFE IN DEATH

When my bier moveth on the day of Death, Think not my heart is in this world. Do not weep in the devil's snare: that is woe. When thou seest my hearse, cry not "Parted, parted!" Union and meeting are mine in that hour. If thou commit me to the grave, say not "Farewell, farewell!" For the grave is a curtain hiding the communion of Paradise, After beholding descent, consider resurrection; Why should setting be injurious to the sun and moon? To thee it seems a setting, but 'tis a rising; Tho' the vault seems a prison, 'tis the release of the soul. * * * * * * * *¨* * * * * * * Shut thy mouth on this side and open it beyond, For in placeless air will be thy triumphal song.

THE WHOLE AND THE PART

Beware! do not keep, in a circle of reprobates, Thine eye shut like a bud, thy mouth open like the rose. The world resembles a mirror: thy Love is the perfect image: O people, who has ever seen a part greater than the whole?

THE DIVINE FRIEND

Look on me, for thou art my companion in the grave On the night when thou shalt pass from shop and dwelling. Thou shalt hear my hail in the hollow of the tomb: it shall become known to thee That thou wast never concealed from mine eye. I am as reason and intellect within thy bosom At the time of joy and gladness, at the time of sorrow and distress. * * * * * * * *¨* * * * * * * In the hour when the intellectual lamp is lighted, What a pears goes up from the dead men in the tombs!

ASPIRATION

Haste, haste! for we too, O soul, are coming From this world of severance to that world of Union.

O how long shall we, like children, in the earthly sphere Fill our lap with dust and stones and sherds? Let us give up the earth and fly heavenwards, Let us flee from childhood to the banquet of men. Behold how the earthly frame has entrapped thee! Rend the sack and raise thy head clear.

"I WELL CHERISH THE SOUL"

"I am a painter, a maker of pictures; every moment I shape a beauteous form, And then in Thy presence I melt them all away. I call up a hundred phantoms and indue them with a spirit; When I behold Thy phantom, I cast them in the fire." * * * * * * * *¨* * * * * * * Lo! I will cherish the soul, because it has a perfume of Thee. Every drop of blood which proceeds from me is saying to Thy dust: "I am one colour with Thy love, I am a partner of Thy affection." In the house of water and clay this heart is desolate without Thee; O Beloved, enter the house, or I will leave it.

"THIS IS LOVE"

This is Love: to fly heavenward, To rend, every instant, a hundred veils. The first moment, to renounce Life: The last step, to feel without feet. To regard this world as invisible, Not to see what appears to one's self. "O heart," I said, "may it bless thee To have entered the circle of lovers, To look beyond the range of the eye, To penetrate the windings of the bosom! Whence did this breath come to thee, O my soul, Whence this throbbing, O my heart?"

THE JOURNEY TO THE BELOVED

O lovers, O lovers, it is time to abandon the world: The drum of departure reaches my spiritual ear from heaven. Behold, the driver has risen and made ready his files of camels, And begged us to acquit him of blame: why, O travellers, are you asleep? These sounds before and behind are the din of departure and of the camel-bells; With each moment a soul and spirit is setting off into the Void. From these inverted candles, from these blue awnings There has come forth a wondrous people, that the mysteries may be revealed. A heavy slumber fell upon thee from the circling spheres: Alas, for this life so light, beware of this slumber so heavy! O soul, seek the Beloved, O friend, seek the Friend, O watchman, be wakeful: it behoves not a watchman to sleep.

THE DAY OF RESURRECTION

On every side is clamour and tumult, in every street are candles and torches, For to-night the teeming world gives birth to the World Everlasting. Thou wert dust and art spirit, thou wert ignorant and art wise. He who has led thee thus far will lead thee further also. How pleasant are the pains He makes thee suffer while He gently draws thee to Himself!

THE RETURN OF THE BELOVED

Always at night returns the Beloved: do not eat opium to-night; Close your mouth against food, that you may taste the sweetness of the mouth. Lo, the cup-bearer is no tyrant, and in his assembly there is a circle: Come into the circle, be seated; how long will you regard the revolution (of Time)? * * * * * * * *¨* * * * * * * Why, when God's earth is so wide, have you fallen asleep in a prison? Avoid entangled thoughts, that you may see the explanation of Paradise. Refrain from speaking, that you may win speech hereafter. Abandon life and the world, that you may behold the Life of the world.

THE CALL OF THE BELOVED

Every morning a voice comes to thee from heaven: "When thou lay'st the dust of the way, thou win'st thy way to the goal." On the road to the Ka'ba of Union, lo, in every thorn-bush Are thousands slain of desire who manfully yielded up their lives. Thousands sank wounded on this path, to whom there came not A breath of the fragrance of Union, a token from the neighbourhood of the Friend.

"THE BANQUET OF UNION"

In memory of the banquet of Union, in yearning for His beauty They are fallen bewildered by the wine Thou knowest. How sweet, in the hope of Him, on the threshold of His Abode, For the sake of seeing His face, to bring night round to day! Illumine thy bodily senses by the Light of the soul: * * * * * * * *¨* * * * * * * Look not in the world for bliss and fortune, since thou wilt not find them; Seek bliss in both worlds by serving Him, Put away the tale of Love that travellers tell; Do thou serve God with all thy might.

"BE SILENT"

Be silent that the Lord who gave thee language may speak, For as He fashioned a door and lock, He has also made a key.

"THOU DIDST GO TO THE ROSE-GARDEN"

At last thou hast departed and gone to the Unseen; 'Tis marvellous by what way thou wentest from the world. Thou didst strongly shake thy wings and feathers, and having broken thy cage Didst take to the air and journey towards the world of Soul. Thou wert a favourite falcon, kept in captivity by an old woman: When thou heard'st the falcon-drum thou didst fly away into the Void. Thou wert a love-lorn nightingale among owls: The scent of the Rose-Garden, reached thee, and thou didst go to the Rose-Garden.

"THE WORLD GAVE THEE FALSE CLUES"

The world gave thee false clues, like a ghoul: Thou took'st no heed of the clue, but wentest to that which is without a clue. Since thou art now the sun, why dost thou wear a tiara? Why seek a girdle, since thou art gone from the middle? I have heard that thou art gazing with distorted eyes upon thy soul: Why dost thou gaze on thy soul, since thou art gone to the Soul of soul? O heart, what a wondrous bird art thou, that in chase of divine rewards Thou didst fly with two wings to the spear-point, like a shield! The rose flees from autumn--O what a fearless rose art thou, Who didst go loitering along in the presence of the autumn wind! Falling like rain from heaven upon the roof of the terrestrial world Thou didst run in every direction till thou didst escape by conduit. Be silent and free from the pain of speech: do not slumber, Since thou hast taken refuge with so loving a Friend.

"HE COMES"

He comes, a moon whose like the sky ne'er saw, awake or dreaming, Crowned with Eternal Flame no flood can lay. Lo, from the flagon of Thy Love, O Lord, my soul is swimming, And ruined all my body's house of clay! When first the Giver of the grape my lonely heart befriended, Wine fired my bosom and my veins filled up, But when His image all mine eye possessed, a voice descended: "Well done, O sovereign Wine and peerless Cup!" Love's mighty arm from roof to base each dark abode is hewing Where chinks reluctant catch a golden ray. My heart, when Love's sea of a sudden burst into its viewing, Leaped headlong in, with "Find me now who may!"

"THE ROAD BE THINE TOWARDS THE SHRINE"

O honoured guest in Love's high feast, O bird of the angel-sphere, 'Tis cause to weep, if thou wilt keep thy habitation here. A voice at morn to thee is borne--God whispers to the soul-- "If on the way the dust thou lay, thou soon wilt gain the goal." The road be thine toward the Shrine! and lo, in bush and briar, The many slain of Love and pain in flower of young desire, Who on the track fell wounded back and saw not, ere the end, A ray of bliss, a touch, a kiss, a token of the Friend!

THY ROSE

Our Sweetnesses all bleat in Thee, Give infant lips their smiles benign. Thou crushest me to drops of Rose Nor 'neath the press do I repine. In Thy sweet Pain is pain forgot; For I, Thy Rose, had this design. Thou bad'st me blossom on Thy Robe, And mad'st me for all eyes Thy sign. And when Thou pour'st me on the world, It blows in beauty, all Divine.

"I SAW THE WINTER WEAVING"

I saw the winter weaving from flakes a robe of Death; And the spring found earth in mourning, all naked, lone, and bare. I heard Time's loom a-whirring that wove the Sun's dim Veil; I saw a worm a-weaving in Life-threads its own lair. I saw the Great was Smallest, and saw the Smallest Great; For God had set His likeness on all the things that were.

"LOVE SOUNDS THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES"

O, soul, if thou, too, wouldst be free, Then love the Love that shuts thee in. 'Tis Love that twisteth every snare; 'Tis Love that snaps the bond of sin; Love sounds the Music of the Spheres; Love echoes through Earth's harshest din. * * * * * * * *¨* * * * * * * The world is God's pure mirror clear, To eyes when free from clouds within. With Love's own eyes the Mirror view, And there see God to self akin.

"THE SOULS LOVE-MOVED"

The souls love-moved are circling on, Like streams to their great Ocean King. Thou art the Sun of all men's thoughts; Thy kisses are the flowers of spring. The dawn is pale from yearning Love; The moon in tears is sorrowing. Thou art the Rose, and deep for Thee, In sighs, the nightingales still sing.

THE BELOVED ALL IN ALL

My Soul sends up to Heaven each night the cry of Love! God's starry Beauty draws with might the cry of Love! Bright sun and moon each morn dance in my Heart at Dawn: And waking me at daylight, excite the cry of Love! On every meadow glancing, I see God's sun-beams play; And all Creation's wonders excite the cry of Love! * * * * * * * *¨* * * * * * * I, All in All becoming, now clear see God in All; And up from Union yearning, takes flight the cry of Love!

"THOU AND I"

Happy the moment when we are seated in the Palace, thou and I, With two forms and with two figures but with one soul, thou and I. The colours of the grove and the voice of the birds will bestow immortality At the time when we come into the garden, thou and I. The stars of heaven will come to gaze upon us; We shall show them the moon itself, thou and I. Thou and I, individuals no more, shall be mingled in ecstasy, Joyful, and secure from foolish babble, thou and I. All the bright-plumed birds of heaven will devour their hearts with envy In the place where we shall laugh in such a fashion, thou and I. This is the greatest wonder, that thou and I, sitting here in the same nook, Are at this moment both in Irāq and Khorasan, thou and I.

[Footnote 1: The celestial Venus, and leader of the starry choirs to music. See R. A. Nicholson's note in _Selected Poems from the Dīvāni Shamsi Tabrīz._]

[Footnote 2: A design traced in henna.]

SELECTIONS FROM THE "MASNAVI"

SORROW QUENCHED IN THE BELOVED

Through grief my days are as labour and sorrow, My days move on, hand in hand with anguish. Yet, though my days vanish thus, 'tis no matter, Do Thou abide, O Incomparable Pure One.

THE MUSIC OF LOVE

Hail to thee, then, O LOVE, sweet madness! Thou who healest all our infirmities! Who art the Physician of our pride and self conceit! Who art our Plato and our Galen! Love exalts our earthly bodies to heaven, And makes the very hills to dance with joy! O lover, 'twas Love that gave life to Mount Sinai, When "it quaked, and Moses fell down in a swoon." Did my Beloved only touch me with His lips, I too, like a flute, would burst out into melody.

"WHEN THE ROSE HAS FADED"

When the rose has faded and the garden is withered, The song of the nightingale is no longer to be heard. The BELOVED is all in all, the lover only veils Him; The BELOVED is all that lives, the lover a dead thing. When the lover feels no longer LOVE'S quickening, He becomes like a bird who has lost its wings. Alas! How can I retain my senses about me, When the BELOVED shows not the Light of His countenance?

THE SILENCE OF LOVE

Love is the astrolabe of God's mysteries. A lover may hanker after this love or that love, But at the last he is drawn to the KING of Love. However much we describe and explain Love, When we fall in love we are ashamed of our words. Explanation by the tongue makes most things clear, But Love unexplained is better.

EARTHLY LOVE ESSENTIAL TO THE LOVE DIVINE

In one 'twas said, "Leave power and weakness alone; Whatever withdraws thine eyes from God is an idol." In one 'twas said, "Quench not thy earthy torch, That it may be a light to lighten mankind. If thou neglectest regard and care for it, Thou wilt quench at midnight the lamp of Union."

THE ETERNAL SPLENDOUR OF THE BELOVED

Why dost Thou flee from the cries of us on earth? Why pourest Thou sorrow on the heart of the sorrowful? O Thou who, as each new morn dawns from the east, Art seen uprising anew, like a bright fountain! What excuse makest Thou for Thy witcheries? O Thou whose lips are sweeter than sugar, Thou that ever renewest the life of this old world, Hear the cry of this lifeless body and heart!

WOMAN

Woman is a ray of God, not a mere mistress, The Creator's Self, as it were, not a mere creature!

THE DIVINE UNION

Mustafa became beside himself at that sweet call, His prayer failed on "the night of the early morning halt." He lifted not head from that blissful sleep,[1] So that his morning prayer was put off till noon. On that, his wedding night, in the presence of his bride, His pure soul attained to kiss her hands. Love and mistress are both veiled and hidden. Impute it not a fault if I call Him "Bride."

"HE KNOWS ABOUT IT ALL"[2]

He who is from head to foot a perfect rose or lily, To him spring brings rejoicing. The useless thorn desires the autumn, That autumn may associate itself with the garden; And hide the rose's beauty and the thorn's shame, That men may not see the bloom of the one and the other's shame; That common stone and pure ruby may appear all as one. True, the Gardener knows the difference in the autumn, But the sight of _One_ is better than the world's sight.

RESIGNATION THE WAY TO PERFECTION

Whoso recognises and confesses his own defects Is hastening in the way that leads to Perfection! But he advances not towards the Almighty Who fancies himself to be perfect.

LOVE THE SOURCE OF LIGHT RATHER THAN VANISHING FORM

Whatsoever is perceived by sense He annuls, But He stablishes that which is hidden from the senses. The lover's love is visible, his Beloved hidden. The Friend is absent, the distraction He causes present. Renounce these affections for outward forms, Love depends not on outward form or face. Whatever is beloved is not a mere empty form, Whether your beloved be of the earth or heaven. Whatever is the form you have fallen in love with-- Why do you forsake it the moment life leaves it? The form[3] is still there; whence then this disgust at it? Ah! lover, consider well what is really your beloved. If a thing perceived by outward senses is the beloved, Then all who retain their senses must still love it; And since Love increases constancy, How can constancy fail while form abides? But the truth is, the sun's beams strike the wall, And the wall only reflects that borrowed light. Why give your heart to mere stones, O simpleton? Go! Seek the Source of Light which shineth alway!

THE RELIGION OF LOVE

The sect of lovers is distinct from all others, Lovers have a religion and a faith of their own. Though the ruby has no stamp, what matters it? Love is fearless in the midst of the sea of fear.

"PAIN IS A TREASURE!"

Pain is a treasure, for it contains mercies; The kernel is soft when the rind is scraped off. O brother, the place of darkness and cold Is the fountain of Life and the cup of ecstasy. So also is endurance of pain and sickness and disease. For from abasement proceeds exaltation. The spring seasons are hidden in the autumns, And the autumns are charged with springs.

SPIRIT GREATER THAN FORM

If spiritual manifestations had been sufficient, The creation of the world had been needless and vain. If spiritual thought were equivalent to love of God, Outward forms of temples and prayers would not exist.

THE BELOVED COMPARED TO "A SWEET GARDEN"