Tabriz. The Tawny Hill
تبریز. تپه اسمر
Verses froze upon the ground -
Azure, grey, and brown...
I have found it upon
Tawny hill, in even cone
I have stacked them, "Maybe ye
Need some melody to live..."
Into bird I turned and circling
Began cooing, cooing lonely...
Verses azure melted, sang,
"We are melodies of wren..."
Verses grey awaking said,
"We are evening tints of rivulet..."
Brown verses then awoke,
"We are ornament of smoke
Of the smouldered day..." Inlay
Coloured I have made
Of these verses; for a friend
Will be gift...
"This inlay you made for me
I shall hang in chamber mine
O'er the odour of thyme
And mint..."
Exclaimed Dervish cheerfully,
Breeze I feel, and then I see...
Dervish: But for thee I something too
Have, - with treasure - cube...
Then the cube toreutic he
Opened, and appeared this:
الكنز الذي لا يَفْنَى هو الصدق والإخلاص
والخوف من الله عز وجل والرجاء له
والرجوع إليه في جميع الأحوال
Unfading treasure is truthfulness, sincerity,
fear of God, exalted is He, hope in Him,
and turning to Him in all states.
Al-Jilani
Me: Thank you, master, but do say...
I would like to stand by Gate...
Dervish:
Very well, instead of me
Be the keeper of Tabriz,
Some weeks I need to finish my
Calligraphy of rhymes...
How not to squander time -
For thee remark:
فإن السر كله في حفظ الوقت
All the secret is in keeping time.
Ibn 'Arabi
This river carries sails,
Day by day she takes away...
And Ah onlý the wind repeat
When keel is empty, days are missed...
صوفی اِبْنُ الوَقت باشد ای رفیق
نیست فردا گفتن از شَرطِ طریق
Sufi is the son of time, O friend, -
To say "Tomorrow..." is a way unwell.
Rumi, Masnavi 1:133
When hourglass expended, empty,
The Magistrate your soul is waiting:
"What have ye brought to Us, reply!
We gave thee Image, gifts and life...
Where are the wings, fulfilments, say!?
The image broken, stole and ate
The pinions cat... Alack...
Thou art a profligate; Avaunt!
In fire cast him, burn!"
Every tree that bringeth not forth
good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Matthew 7:19
وإنّما يفوت جزءاً جزءاً على حكمة
من الله عزّ وجلّ، وتمهُّل واستدراج منه،
وقتاً بعد وقت...
حتى تفنى الأيام بالفوت، وتنقضى
الأوقات إلى الموت...
ويسبغ عليه النعم كيلا يعلم، ويديم
له العَوَافى لئلا يفطن
And so, a morsel by morsel he misses away,
As saying Divine this narrates;
but he keeps on delaying, laying aside,
but is running, passing the time...
Till the days expended and lost,
and time is over, and Oh...
It is death...
And prosperity will be given to him lest
he understood... And welfare
lest he got aware...
Al-Makki
April 2020
Abd Al-Qadir Al-Jilani, The Opening of Lordship
الفتح الرباني والفيض الرحماني
Ibn 'Arabi, The Epistle on the Time and the Now
رسالة الوقت والآن
Abu Talib Al-Makki, The Sustenance of Hearts 1
قوت القلوب في معاملة المحبوب
Translations from Arabic and Farsi
by Denis Bezmelnitsin
|
