English
A Fresh Opening
You look in the mirror and see the world as a rose garden;
look at my state instead, and you will see the final chaos of the age.
The clear joy of lovers is the mirror of the beloved.
Why keep me withered while you fancy yourself the gardener?
You waste your coquetry on every worthless fool,
that single glance that could set a hundred households ablaze like lightning on a harvest.
You can turn a lover's loss of both worlds into his gain;
with one glance you yourself lose nothing of your store of pride.
I ask for nothing from seeing you but longing itself.
What harm if from my frustration you grant one heart its wish?
By the blessing of love I hold both spring and autumn at once:
my lashes are the clouds of spring, my face the falling leaves of autumn.
I have sealed my tongue from talk, yet in thanks for that silence
every tip of my hair speaks with every tip of hair.
I have fallen from my own restless wavering, yet still I search for you;
you see my tears, flowing helplessly in every direction.
I stand at your command, I have given my heart to your service;
I am such that however you wish me, that is just how you find me.
If I rise up to lament, you sense the breath of autumn;
if I sit down weeping, you see the purple bloom of spring.
I am so hopeless of myself that you would wish it on an enemy,
yet so full of hope that you yourself would hope the same.
Though it is not fitting to speak of my despair of myself,
yet you see hope made eloquent by my longing.
My hope is hope through and through, yet all the flight of my hope
you will find circling the tomb of the Prophet of the last age.
What a tomb, whose height rises higher than the turning sky;
what a tomb, whose honor stands paired with the divine throne.
From its pure air you grasp the meaning of paradise in spring;
from its sacred dust you read the garden of Eden.
What vastness is in his shrine, glory be to God,
that these nine heavens are but one awning in its courtyard.
What meaning, God protect it, lives in its air, that within it
you see Gabriel's breath flow into the body with every inhalation.
What wisdom, marvelous is God's power, fills its air,
so that at its touch you see even the firm mine reach its limit.
God forbid that the demon of sin, from which Adam was not safe,
should enter there; if you could make your place there, you would find safety till Judgment Day.
Think of Medina as a body of balanced temperament,
and this radiant tomb pouring into it like a soul.
At that threshold, so many heads have bowed in honor to its dust
that if you dig its ground, you reach the heavens at the center.
If its earth is not literally the sky, then in meaning at least
you see it as a dwelling for the world-warming sun of the soul.
Muhammad, whom you find creation owes its very being to;
you see his existence as the cause that brought the kingdom of 'Be, and it was' into being.
If he were merely possible, then between the possible and the necessary
I would be amazed to find any real separation between.
Both the low and the high bow their heads to the line of his command,
for you find him the caravan leader and the world his caravan.
All keep their heads bowed, past and future alike,
for you see his rule running over both what has gone and what is to come.
How wonderfully universal, glory be to God, is this mercy, what a nature,
that through it what you see for a friend, you see the same for an enemy.
If the dust of orphanhood settled on his face, it could not darken it,
for you see the world treating that dust of orphanhood as kohl for its eyes.
An orphan without a father, yet father to the whole world,
for you see his nature pour free tenderness upon everyone.
He had no father over him, but God's grace was over him;
what need of a father for one over whom you see God's loving grace?
Do you not see in his Quran that proof itself is put to shame,
for in every single letter you see truth laid bare?
Do you not read his sayings, until your lips fall silent from talk,
for in them you find certainty unveiled, beyond all doubt?
Through his Salman you find all of Plato's wisdom humbled;
through his Miqdad you find all the learning of Greece diminished.
At his court you find a thousand like Aristotle without deeds;
at his threshold you see a thousand like Alexander standing guard.
With the light of the Quran, what need have you of Greek learning?
You hold fire before your eyes, yet seek its glow from smoke.
Who would mention Aristotle and Plato beside Muhammad the chosen?
When the sun has risen, would you still look for the light of two faint stars?
Plato boasts of reason; Muhammad weaves love.
Look at the result of this, and you will see the worth of that.
To die in love is better for you than to live in reason;
for in reason you find the rust of the heart, and in love the polishing of the soul.
You need the longing for martyrdom that flames up from the heart,
so that you see the flash of the sword as a candle on the grave of the slain.
If you want the difference between gnosis and proof, find it like this:
gnosis is the beloved at your side, while proof is a mere messenger between you.
Come with love into the marketplace of his sacred law, for from every side,
wherever you stroll, you will see all beauty on display.
Make the dust of holy Medina the kohl of your eyes, then look,
if you wish to behold the beauty of the faces of the spirits.
By his dust, beside which even the water of life dies of thirst,
moisten your lips with a kiss, and you will find eternal life.
For a lifetime this longing has rubbed its head against the heavens,
yet at my feet you see the heavy chains of worldly attachments.
Though my body is far from that threshold, open your inner eye,
and you will see my soul spread like a carpet at that doorway.
My body rolls in the water of my tears from longing for his dust,
like a fish you see thrashing on the ground, far from its water.