Ode IX

Every moment the voice of Love is coming from left and right.
We are bound for heaven: who has a mind to sight-seeing?
We have been in heaven, we have been friends of the angels;
Thither, sire, let us return, for that is our country.
We are even higher than heaven and more than the angels;
Why pass we not beyond these twain? Our goal is majesty supreme.
How different a source have the world of dust and the pure substance!
Tho’ we came down, let us haste back — what place is this?
Young fortune is our friend, yielding up soul our business;
The leader of our caravan is Mustafa, glory of the world.
This gale’s sweet scent is from the curl of his tresses,
This thought’s radiance is from a cheek like “by the morning bright”
By his cheek the moon was split: she endured not the sight of him;
Such, fortune the moon found — she that is an humble beggar.
Behold a continual “cleaving of the moon” in our hearts,
For why should the vision of that vision transcend thine eye?
Came the billow of “Am I not?” and wrecked the body’s ship;
When the ship wrecks once more is the time of union’s attainment.
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.
Who is this pictured form, who is this monarch and this prince?
Who is this aged wisdom? They are all veils.
The remedy against veils is ecstasies like these.
The fountain of these draughts is in your own head and eyes.
In the head itself is nought, but ye have two heads;
This head of clay is from earth, and that pure head from heaven.
O the many pure heads scattered beneath the clay,
That thou mayst know the head depends on that other head!
That original head hidden, and this derived head manifest,
Forasmuch as behind this world lies the infinite universe.
Tie up the skin, O cup-bearer, fetch wine from our jar:
The vessel of perceptions is straiter than a strait pass.
From Tabriz-ward shone the Sun of Truth, and I said to him:
‘Thy light is at once joined with all things and apart from all.’