Tabriz. The Blue Mosque
تبریز. مسجد کبود
Greyish-green speechless glow,
Froze the silence twixt above and the below;
Motionless congealed the wind
In reflex on window; beams,
Only mystic beams of moon
Calmly flow upon the Blue
Mosque... Temple, seems, does magnetize
All the glimmer of the night...
Stillness strange, serene, arcane
All around permeate...
On the walls - inscriptions-ornament -
Holy Words engraved, but yet
In the rivers boisterous they turned,
Is it dream of doze or not?
Noise of water streaming but I hear,
Feel as if I am away from here...
Only sounds, sounds flowing,
Maybe 'tis a soul thus purling..?
Yet I see the fane entwined
With the streamlets running... Fright
Supplanted the amazement, but
Some odd torpor siezed my heart...
"Comest in!" Voice told; the door
Water pouring is become, - a waterfall.
To flee? Or to submit? Within
Someone said as if,
"Be not among those who scape,
For they scape from themselves..."
On having stepped, on having passed
Through watery door, before me vast
And spacious chamber; on the walls -
Imprint of azure sky, the words,
Methinks, are smouldering, touched
By blaze... Abruptly but
Some inspiration me engulfed...
Whether I - a flame of taper,
Whether spark of star, or máybe
Whirling wind; I speed, aspire
To the dome, to cope of heaven, higher...
Exaltation ceased, I see
Dervish young in front of me...
"Do not speak aloud, nay,
For 'tis heart of mysteries..." He spake.
Silence hung, as dusky cloud,
Only minutes fleeing calmly sound...
Dervish dipped in reading Writ,
Mystic shine his book emit...
Yet he finished, turned to me,
Smiling spoke, "Behold and see
How on the walls the scriptures glimmer,
For in them abideth Spirit..."
Me: Tell me, what the water pouring was?
Dervish:
'Twas light indeed, but don't you know,
To enter hither, thou hast to undergo
Purification... A contemplation of the signs
Gain they of lucid heart and clear sight.
Me: Expound, tell about the purification...
Dervish:
'Tis way of pain, of loss and tribulation.
A handful of the sand in hand of thine
Shall waste... On lake of sighs
The cane shall grow, sugar, green, -
Thus coming a renewal, Spring...
The same is way of love, when ye
Abandon self, forgive and give,
Yet even if
Are left despair'd, brokenhearted, know,
That "Brokenhearted lovers are the lords
In heaven," Quoth
Thus divine Rumi... But listen this:
أعني أنه من طهَّر لوحه ومحاه، حتى يتركه مهيئاً لقبول ما
يخط فيه من الخط الاختصاصي، فإن الله سبحانه وتعالى
ينفح له روحاً من أمره، وكلمة من كلمه يهبه في ذلك النفح
But learn, that he who cleaned a tablet his,
And made it blank for special writ,
Then God exalted will inbreathe
In it a spirit from His command,
His word from words He will instil in that
His breath.
Ibn 'Arabi
On tablet white at night of strength
Shall write inscriptions hand
In ink arcane and sacred, that
'Twill become as magic amulét.
And from the chasm of secrets name
Will be upon the tablet-heart engraved...
And Spirit lofty, holy thus
By breeze will blow, alight in heart...
فطهّر ثوبك ظاهراً وباطناً، فإذا تجلّى البصر
تقّوى النظر، فأبصرت الأشياء على ما هي عليه
Purify thy attire within and without,
So when the vision be manifested, the sight
Will be empowered, and thou shalt see
Things as they verily be...
Ibn 'Arabi
And eyes shall open, and the shoreless night
Become noontide...
And doze shall vanish as a smoke,
Then ye will see the signs of God
In each direction; And expression, symbol be
Yet everything... And fleeting all what is
On Earth except the Face of God,
And art be an imprint, a manifested word -
The name of Spirit, but
The Lord is glorified indeed by deeds and art.
It is a summit of glorification -
It is true meaning of creation...
But hearken then to revelation:
فمن التراب كَوَّنه، وأربعين صباحاً خمر طينته؛ ليُبعِدَ
بالتخمير أربعين صباحاً بأربعين حجاباً من الحضرة الإلهية
Of clay formed him,
And forty dawns had been
Brewing his clay to distance
Divine presence by the forty veils thus.
Umar Suhrawardi
Forty instants-transformations; a compound
Is compiled of forty layers-gowns
To conceal and swaddle secret grain;
Perfect vessel to contain
Nun ن... Thus hath been formed a fane,
Veiled by forty palls the realm Divine
To preserve on Earth the life.
ففي كلّ يوم بإحلاصه في العمل لله يكشف طبقةً من الأطباق
الترابية الجِبلِّية المبعدةِ عن الله تعالى إلى أن ينكشف باستكمال
الأربعين أربعون طبقةً، في كلّ يوم طبقة من أطباق حجابه
The very day of sincere devotion and deeds
In the name of the Lord, removes he
A layer from layers of clay coarse and crude,
Distancing from God lofty until forty veiles be removed.
On having fulfilled forty days of devotion; each day -
A layer from layers of veil.
Umar Suhrawardi
So forty days in desert far
You need to pray in solitude and fast,
And read the scriptures holy for
The gross and corporeal palls
To be removed, then moon will see
The sun and subtle reality...
But know, that few, but just a few
Can bear dire solitude...
Therefore there are the ways
Of gradual burning of the veils:
The dale of woe, affliction, trials,
And dale of love - of blazing fire.
Then brought he candle, gave to me,
Its fire trembled and upheaved,
As flower blossom'd, enchanted sight,
Then dervish said, "'Tis thine..."
August 2018
Ibn 'Arabi, The Abode of Stars
مواقع النُجوم ومطالع أهلة الأسرار والعلوم
Umar Suhrawardi, The Knowledge of the Spiritually Learned
عوارف المعارف
Translation from Arabic
by Denis Bezmelnitsin
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