Balkh. The Well
In the morning one I went
To bring water from the well.
All in traces - sandy road -
Someone left them and forgot...
Maybe traces these to pick,
And to find the one who missed, -
"You forgot upon the sand..."
But a shadow from the slant
Interrupted feeling this:
- The well you seek don't miss...
By the yellow shrub I stopped,
Twisted into question road;
Only shrub and weed amid
The minutes samely, still...
- Near yonder wall afar,
Vowels of wind where are...
Muttered shrub asleep...
In remoteness lorn I see
Broken wall, and well, and sad
Dervish sitting on the mat.
Dervish: I was writing couplet, but
From incautious motion, ah,
Into the well it slipped...
Me: But I have a pail with me,
We may try your rhyme to fish
Out...
With a cord we then had bound
The pail, began to dip it down...
Dervish: In water sombre seine is cast,
We, maybé, shall drag a carp...
Three attempts we made, or four,
Yet at last we something caught.
Me: Something heavy in the pail,
Seems that luce we pull away...
The pail we put upon the brick,
A common stone I see in it.
Dervish: Yes, the morning is not lost,
It is my unwritten verse!
Me: But this is mere river stone!?
Dervish: The river stone of tone
Of green...
با تو دیوار است و با ایشان در است
با تو سنگ و با عزیزان گوهر است
آن چه تو در آینه بینی عیان
پیر اندر خشت بیند بیش از آن
For you wall, for them gate,
For you stone, but gem for elects;
What you see in the mirror plain,
In a stone master sees more than that.
Rumi, Masnavi 2:166,167
There is a mystery in things,
What does the vessel have within?
The meaning, vision, or a tune;
What sings the hidden flute to you...
فإنهم إذا شاهدوه عظم عندهم كل
شيء لإنهم شاهدوه في كل شيء
When they behold God, great for them is
every thing, because they behold Him
in every thing.
Ibn 'Arabi
The way of contemplation is
To see the hidden with
His eyes...
هر کجا گوشی، بُد از وی چَشم گشت
هر کجا سنگی بُد، از وی یَشْم گشت
Where were ears - become eyes by His grace,
Where were stones - by God jasper became.
Rumi, Masnavi 1:518
But to my couplet hark:
There is a pond in olden park
Where rain is strolling reed amid,
Still seeks the absent bark
In water sombre-green...
May 2022
Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of the Books
كتاب الكتب
Translations from Arabic and Farsi
by Denis Bezmelnitsin
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