Ode XXXIX

I went to the Master’s abode and said: ‘Where is the Master?’
He said: ‘The Master is in love and intoxicated and a wanderer from place to place.’
I said: ‘I have an obligation, at least give me a clue;
I am the Master’s friend: nay, indeed, I am no enemy.’
They replied: ‘The Master is fallen in love with the Gardener;
Seek him in gardens or on the bank of a stream.’
Frenzied lovers pursue the object of their love;
If any one has fallen in love, go, wash thy hands of him!
The fish that has known water comes not to land:
How should a lover stay in the sphere of colour and perfume?
The frozen snow that has beheld the face of yonder Sun,
Is swallowed up by the sun, tho’ it be piled in drifts.
Especially one who is the lover of our King,
A king peerless and faithful and sweet-tempered.
By that infinite alchemy, which none may compute or conjecture,
Copper, as soon as it is touched, becomes gold at the command, “Return”.
Sleep the world away, and flee from the six dimensions;
How long wilt thou roam in thy folly and bewilderment to and fro?
Inevitably they will bring thee at last, with thy own consent,
That thou mayst have honour and glory in the presence of the King.
Had not there been an intruder in the company,
Jesus would have revealed to thee the mysteries, point by point.
I have closed the passage of the lips, and opened the secret way;
I am free in one moment from the desire of speech.