English
Number 6
What we seek lies beyond what every seeker seeks;
our drinking is of a wine no other cup can hold.
No one has ever tasted a single sip to his heart's content
from the wine our own lips keep drinking without pause.
Our starry sky lies beyond all the skies,
for the sacred essence itself is our sky of stars.
Many spurred on the horse of the heart, yet no rider,
however swift his soul, ever caught up to our steed.
When the days and nights of creation did not yet exist,
his face was already our day, his hair our night.
Whoever gave up life and world bought his love,
and came to know the loss and gain of our trade.
Only that one grasps the meaning of our sighs and prayers
who, like us, has been burned by our cry of 'O Lord.'
Take up our faith, root and branch,
for the true religion is the one we follow.
First wash the tablet of your heart clean of all creation's marks,
if, like Maghrebi, you mean to enter our school.
What love was it the Friend kneaded into our clay?
What treasure did the Beloved lay within our heart?