Konya. The Old Cottage
"On the gate - a brazon ring,
Knock! The lock it doesn't have;
Someone left inscription Wind..."
Told a stone from the shelf.
After pause I heard: From the
Window hollow someone look,
Saying, "Yet I have with me
The seventh page of book..."
Then I see a street in Konya,
Modern lodges passing by...
Someone said, "A cottage ónly -
From the past survived..."
As a stroke of watercolour
Was a wall afar...
Soon I could descry the hollow
Window, building, car...
To the gate I came of house,
Looking for the writing "Wind"...
"Whom should I report although?"
Clankéd hanging ring...
"Chilly wind it is!" I said.
"'Tis not shut!" replied the gate.
In the court I only met
Desolation and decay...
In the building, creeping, I
Found a frame on wall;
There was yellow page inside,
Under glass unbroken, whole:
When Moses and Khadir in the
Boat were sailing, came
A riddle, "Which of ye
Can untangle, say!"
عن النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: فجاء
عصفورٌ فوقع على حرف السفينة، فنقر
نَقْرَةً أو نقرتَيْن في البحر. فقال الخضر
يا موسى، ما نقص علمي وعلمك من
علم الله إلاّ كنقرة هذا العصفور في البحر
The prophet, be he blessed, told:
A small bird came flying and sat on
the edge of the boat, then dipped
a beak once, or twice into the sea.
Al-Khadir said, "O Moses, my knowledge
and thy knowledge, in comparison with
God's knowledge, is like what this
bird has ta'en out of the sea."
Sahih Al-Bukhari
Then a phrase I hear brief,
"Knowledge and as if..."
Me: This "as if" as secret door...
Dervish: Whether you shall enter, or...
Me: "Or" is apparition, wisp...
Dervish: "Twice" therefore - a bird in mist...
Me: Or at all it hasn't been..?
Dervish: "Or" turns all into "We deem..."
Me: "Once" about Khadir is said...
Dervish: In "as if" is second act...
But let me give remark:
Besides, we must also consider this,
that the teaching, handed down by the
Theologians is two-fold - one, secret
and mystical - the other, open and
better known - one, symbolical and
initiative - the other, philosophic
and demonstrative.
Dionysius the Areopagite
July 2025
Sahih Al-Bukhari, The Commentary on Qur'an
كتاب التفسير
Dionysius the Areopagite, Letter IX. To Titus
Translation by John Parker
Translation from Arabic
by Denis Bezmelnitsin
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