Balkh. The Ruins
Olden ruins looking for
Who shall enter absent door;
Olden doors are calling, "We
Seeming brittle are onlý..."
"Only, only..." Lonely sounds
'Mid the walls forgotten, brown...
- The door I am of many ages,
The book I am of many pages...
Who dares to read..?
Uttered arch of brick...
Then all voices on the sand
Melted... Gently with a hand
I did tip the rifted arch.
- Who is knocking? Verge and marge
I am...
Me: Who does travel between realms...
- Shadow, shadow thine attire,
To the cell of whirling fire
Thou mayst pass...
Then I see a dim-lit path...
Dervish: To my chamber, welcome, friend!
Recently I've been at land...
Where this medieval leaf
Of calligraphy I've bought...
Then he opened oaken box,
And the Celtic manuscript
Took from it...
Dervish: Look, every letter shed a breath,
Every letter spirit has...
Me: Every letter seems magíc...
Dervish: And the scribe is like a mage
Who with script bewitches page...
Me: And this letter-fabled-beast
Looks like sovereign of leaf...
Dervish: This Initial is Qutb¹ -
Lord of dome, the moon.
And all letters of this leaf
From his energy receive...
القطب مركز الدائرة ومحيطها ومرآة
الحق، عليه مدار العالم له رقائق
ممتدة إلى جميع قلوب الخلائق
بالخير والشر على حد واحد
Qutb is the centre of the circle and
its ambience, he is the mirror of God,
the axis of the world, he has
the subtle energies which can
affect the hearts of all the creatures
equally in ill or good way.²
Ibn 'Arabi
And the magic letter saith:
By my presence on this page
Every letter vesture got:
Knights accompany the lord.
والقطب الذي به قوام الفلك
وهو علة وجوده
Qutb does maintain the sphere,
he is the root of its being.³
Ibn 'Arabi
And the drawings on the fields
Are the guardians of leaf...
بی‌‌عِنایاتِ حَق و خاصانِ حَق
گر مَلَک باشد، سیاهَسْتَش وَرَق
Without care of God and His elects, -
Even if angel - his paper is black.
Rumi, Masnavi 1:1882
March 2022
1 Qutb قطب - Pole, around whom the world
is turning. The highest rank among the mystics.
2 Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of the Abode of Qutb,
His Place and His State
كتاب المنزل القطب ومقاله وحاله
3 Ibn 'Arabi, The Meccan Revelations, Chapter 2
الفتوحات المكية
Translations from Arabic and Farsi
by Denis Bezmelnitsin
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