Tabriz. Vision on the Pond
Remnants of the melting sounds
Mixed in lake in strange compound:
Traces fading on the snow, -
Traces of the Autumn cold...
The sunsét in own reflex
Did forget itself, forget...
Leaves of maple, red and ochre -
Remnants of this sunset broken -
Float upon the pond El-Gólü...
In my hand the stone I'm holding
O'er the pond, the stone of moon;
It got dark, in utter gloom
Suddenly I see reflection
On the water: Dervish as
If from mirror to me says:
Do become the whiteness of the milky mist,
Do become the dream of eve...
Do become the deepness of dark night,
Fade and melt, become the sight!
موج ضرب في الساحل وانصرف،
وترك به اللؤلؤ والصدف
فمنهم من زهد ومنهم من اغترف
A wave does whelm the strand and ebb,
Leaving upon it perls and shells...
Some disregard, and some it take...¹
Ibn 'Arabi
But every wave is play of flute -
The mystic breathing coming through...
Me: What should I do
To hear breathing well..?
Dervish:
Forget thy self, and melt...
The Holy Writ, and prayers shall
Your senses change, and heart,
And ye will hark...
نورِ نورِ چشم، نورِ دل است
نورِ چشم از نورِ دلها حاصل است
The light of eye is light of heart,
The light of eye is coming from the heart.
Rumi, Masnavi 1:1129
Me: But how does the heart perceive?
Dervish:
وقال: أعلى معارفك التي في عين قلبك
هي التي فطرها الحق عليها أو ما اعطاها
الحس بارتفاع الموانع: في الحس سر الحق
في الخلق وهو مطلع الصديقيين
And said: Lofty is cognition which is in
the core of your heart, created it
God. It is what senses grasp, distil,
ascending to the meanings: in
the senses is the mystery of God
in creature, 'tis the way of ascent for
the truthfuls...²
Ibn 'Arabi
His dreams, the echo's sounds
By varying, subtle clouds
Are flowing, wave by wave...
Are flowing o'er the lake:
The falling leaves, eclipse, or crow,
Whatever changing form the cloud
Takes, reflection falls upon the lake...
Behind the image meaning be,
By means of visible He speaks...
Me: The echo... what is it?
Dervish: His lunar lords His dreams reflecting,
They are His breaths...
Me: What is their way?
Dervish:
وسُئل فزارة الشّامى عن وصف
الأبدال، وكانوا يظهرون له، فقال:
أكلُهم فاقةٌ، ونومُهم غَلَبة، وكلامُهم
ضرورة، وصَمْتهم حِكمة، وعِلْمُهم قُدرة
Fazāra Al-Shāmi was asked about
the features of the Abdāls³, they had
told him, he replied: Their food is scant,
they fall asleep only when
are overcome by sleep, they speak
only when it is necessary, their silence is
wisdom, their knowledge is power.
Related by Al-Makki
And it is just to say that in the Soul's becoming
a good and beautiful thing is its becoming like to
God, for from the Divine comes all the Beauty and
all the Good in beings.
Plotinus
November 2019
1 Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of Anqā of the West
كتاب عنقاء مغرب في ختم الأولياء وشمس المغرب
2 Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of the Seeing
كتاب الشاهد
Abu Talib Al-Makki, The Sustenance of Hearts 1
قوت القلوب في معاملة المحبوب
Plotinus, Enneads 1:6
Translation by Stephen MacKenna and B.S. Page
3 Abdāl أبدال - forty mighty, they are the men
of mysteries and knowledge, no one knows them
except themselves. They maintain the world's order.
فيهم أحاديث نُسِبَت إلى الرسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، منها:
الأبدال بالشام وهم أربعون رجلا كلما مات رجل أبدل الله مكانه
رجلا يسقي بهم الغيث وينتصر بهم على الأعداء ويصرف
عن أهل الشام بهم العذاب
There are Hadiths about them related to
the messenger of God, be he blest,
one of it: Abdāls are in Damascus, they
are forty men. When one of them dies, God upon his place
assigns another. By them the rain is going,
by them the enemies are vanquished, by them
the people of Damascus shuns the penance.
Translations from Arabic and Farsi
by Denis Bezmelnitsin
| 
