English
Number 21
The bewildered sun asks: where is the sun?
Every flood asks: where has the water gone?
Last night sleep asked my eyes:
don't call this world a dream, but where does sleep itself lie?
The drunkard asks: have you seen the drunk?
Lord, where is that man beside himself, undone?
The wine itself, right there in the tavern,
threw a gathering and asked: where is the wine?
The beloved walks about unveiled
and asks: where is that unveiled beloved?
Everyone is lost and restless,
yet where is the one who has broken free of restlessness?
All of them, behind their own veils, searching for themselves;
where is the knower who has escaped the veil?
How long will you ask, when you yourself are the key to yourself?
What is the key, and where is the door that opens?
Maghrebi, you are like an eastern sun yourself;
how long will you keep asking where the sun is?