Damascus. Barada River
الشام. نهر باراديوس
On the bank a shell I found,
"Maybe ye conceal the sounds..."
- Scoop with me the river's water,
I need living spirit... Whát in
Me shall then resound,
I am song inert without
Music; an illusion like...
Words emerged in heart of mine...
I complied, and filled with this
River's water conch; The eve -
Evening bland began to spout, -
Some even lulling sounds...
Like a glassy bell does chime
In half-slumber... - Vision I
Am thus in husk, but who
Can unriddle me save you,
For you hold the clue...
What it be, I deem, I know,
When to you came flying dove -
The need in queries fade...
About the Fanā you say...
- The state of melting, yes.
Ye have yourself abstracted that
I can through you resound, thou
Art become my sounds...
Then shell continued singing: Green -
Weary greyish-green amid
The clouds, - sleep...
Thus recite the sleep its spell,
Whisper his in river fell...
River then in shell enshrined
The slumbérous spell of night.
Stillness glassy hung in air,
Spell then said, "I am the stairs
To the lunar chamber..." Then
Glass of torpor broke, and
I behold the lord Sufi
Standing 'mid the river still...
Sufi lord: So, the song of conch has brought
The seeking seaman to my boat...
Ask then, yet though
All answers ready in my bowl...
Me: Please tell about Fanā...
Sufi lord: A gust of winged wind,
A disappearing within...
But where then it is? -
Wherever thou wish...
ثم أنشأ لي جناح الفنا
فطرت به إلى حضرة أو أدنى
Then He raised for me the wings of Fanā,
And to the Presence or Nearer with it I flied.¹
Ibn 'Arabi
I have abstracted from myself,
My self in reel of winds did melt;
I looked upon myself and saw
The surging sea without a shore...
I did implore, "Please speak with me!"
The winds replied, "Aye, here we be..."
I cried to mystic sea, "Please say!"
The sea replied, "What doth My name
Wish to know?" - I've lost myself!
- But Me hast found!
Me: The way to gain Fanā what is?
Sufi lord:
فسمعت صلصلة الألحان بوقوع الامتحان،
فاقشعر جلدي وزال كل ما كان عندي،
ثم هبت عليَّ عواصف رياحه فسترتني
بريش جناحه
I heard the strains in place of trial, and
I shivered, lost all what I had...
Then hit me His stormy winds,
And covered with feathers of wings.¹
Ibn 'Arabi
The desert arid of the solitude,
Where rain is only food;
Where stinging sand afflicteth pain,
Where years run away in train...
چون خدا خواهد که مان یاری کُند
مَیْلِ ما را جانِبِ زاری کُند
If wishes God to help us, then
To the place of suffering us He propels.
Rumi, Masnavi 1:820
Wherefrom is born the phoenix, say..?
- From out the flame...
Me: The broken fort, O master, how
Can it be saved..?
Sufi lord:
And I sought for a man among them,
that should build up the wall, and stand in the gap
before Me for the land, that I should not
destroy it, but I found none.
Ezekiel 22:30
Light up thy candle, stand in gap!
Light up and shine in hollow black!
Illume the gloomy night! And raise
The blazon fallen then again...
وفتح مدينة كبرى بتكبير وتهليل
على مقتضى السُّنَّة، لا بالمرهفات
البيض ولا بزرق الأسنَّة
The victory over Madīna, as tradition narrates,
was by glorification and praise,
not by white lances or arrows azure.²
Ibn 'Arabi
Reveal th' unseen, thy visions paint!
Your knowledge manifest, create!
It is true meaning of the praise.
And it came to pass, when Moses held
up his hand, that Israel prevailed and when
he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
Exodus 17:11
The risen hands are prayer, praise,
Before the God the ghost prostrate...
ويقال: إن واحداً مِنَ الأبْدالِ الثلاثمائةِ
قيمتُه قيمةُ ثلاثمائةِ مؤمنٍ
'Tis reported: one of the three hundred Abdāls -
his value is equal to the value of
three hundred faithful [scholars].
Al-Makki
One of the lords from rock austere
Descended, trembled even fear;
And air abashed by ashes fell;
The lord his orison began:
"In the Name of God, the Word
Let the hidden seals be oped!"
Then he grasped his staff-as-axe
And has severed nightly veils...
I speak by means of visions, but
Shall understand the one of heart.
وقال ابن عباس: للعلماء درجات
فوق الذين آمنوا بسبعمائة درجةِ،
ما بين الدرجتين خمسمائة عام
Ibn Abbās said: The scholars' rank
is seven hundred degrees higher, than
the rank of common believers. Between
each degree are five hundred years.
Related by Al-Makki
O thou of knowledge, rise and be
The beacon in this dimness bleak!
O thou skilled in art, I charge thee, rise!
Let not the fraud prevail this night!
January 2020
1 Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of Nocturnal Journey
كتاب الإسرا إلى مقام الأسرى
2 Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of Anqā of the West
كتاب عنقاء مغرب في ختم الأولياء وشمس المغرب
Abu Talib Al-Makki, The Sustenance of Hearts 1
قوت القلوب في معاملة المحبوب
Translations from Arabic and Farsi
by Denis Bezmelnitsin
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