Hamedan. Upon Reverse of Moon
همدان. روی پشت ماه
کجا بی جای ته ای بر همه شاه
که مو آیم بدانجا از همه راه
همه جا جای ته مو کور باطن
غلط گفتم غلط استغفرالله
Where be, Lord of all, your place?
That I may there come from all ways...
But every place is thy place, I am blind;
God, forgive me, wrong I did say.
Baba Taher, Do-bayti 218
His way I sought 'mid strophes, rhymes
Of lays forgotten long ago...
I sought Him on another side
Of moon, but gone astray, and rove...
Where echo beckons me with hand -
I wend thereto...
On the crooning yellow sand
Of reverse of moon...
To the brim I filled my cup with
Lunar water strange...
Thus I amble, drink and sing;
Lost in fog I am...
Hey! Is there any wight
Hereabouts? Only sounds unclear
To me did reply,
"We nigh, we are far, we are here..."
But who are you, O sounds?
- We are they - who clad in a shade...
- But say, how can you be found?
- Only to go astray...
Suddenly a figure blear
From a haze unclear to me
Came, did shake the air,
Multiplied... from every side I see...
Like in the many mirrors wan,
He everywhere be around -
Vague form of many winged man;
My breath congealed and fell on ground.
On having woke
From swoon I see
The mag in haze before
Me on reverse of moon. I sleep?
Mag:
This place is maze, it is absurd,
Perplexity, abstraction, but
It really does not
Exist, although it does...
In Hamedan if you
Too much, too long behold the moon,
It may to fall in love in thee,
And steal you to the backside this...
Me: And what shall I to do?
Mag:
Thank God, for yet forever you
Are lost upon reverse of moon...
You soon return to former state,
But never it will be as been again...
Me: But tell me, gates where are
To this demesne of dark..?
Mag:
ولا يكون فتح ذلك الباب، إلاَّ على قدر ما يريده
الواهب، أن يفتح منها على من يشاء من عباده
This gate insomuch can only be
Opened, as the Giver it wish,
And to whom He wishes from the servants of Him.
Ibn 'Arabi
Where are the gates of moon?
But ask the lunar Harfs¹, maybé
They shall respond to you,
If God permit...
إن طمع في نيل مقام أعلى من ذلك فيقال له:
لمَ لا ترتفع همّتك إلى ذلك، وقد تحقّقت
أن بالهمم الوصول
He desired to attain a station higher,
To him 'twas said: Why don't you then
Augment thine ardour, for it is established that
By the ardour - attainment.
Ibn 'Arabi
November 2018
1 Harfs - Letters of Arabic alphabet are divided
into Lunar and Solar Harfs.
Baba Taher, Do-baytiha (two-couplets)
دوبیتی‌ها
Ibn 'Arabi, The Abode of Stars
مواقع النُجوم ومطالع أهلة الأسرار والعلوم
Translations from Farsi and Arabic
by Denis Bezmelnitsin
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