Tabriz. Night in the Tavern
تبریز. شب اندر خرابات
گر عمر بشد عمر دگر داد خدا
گر عمر فنا نماند نک عمر بقا
عشق آب حیاتست در این آب درآ
هر قطره از این بحر حیاتست جدا
If life became another - grant of God;
The life of presence, when life of Fanā is no more.
Love is the water of life, in it go...
The separate life from this brine is each drop.
Rumi, Quatrain 62
Uneven smoke on walls - imprint
Of silent depth and dim...
A stream of shadows grey
Is washing forms away; A pale
Vessel standing by
The window, livid like
The moon; A wooden floor - the board
Chequered: black and reddish, or
It is commingled thus
A shade and fire from the hearth...
Some picture on the wall, as fog;
I feel, in mist are floating thoughts;
I see some lineaments in picture, they
Are under whisper of the shades...
A faint, or slumber, or between,
Amid the fog the lords I see
In white attired, eyes of one,
And face reflected in my heart.
His face is concentration, eyes
Are crystals, vision then dispelled as night.
In the hearth a fire trembling
Rose, and whirling, dancing
Came to me and split the trance -
Dervish I see, clad in black.
Dervish: Sailing, sailing questions, but
All responses seek in heart...
Me: But this haze, do say me, why..?
Dervish: Frost is writing on the window signs,
Who shall read..?
Me: Only birds, maybé...
Dervish: Well you say, arcane, concealed
Is always in the cloud hid...
Who shall see..?
Me: Mirror clean, maybé...
Dervish: Why do we
Seek the ducks elsewhere, when
They are swimming in the lake
Of ours, but hark:
اندیشه مکن بکن تو خود را در خواب
کاندیشه ز روی مه حجابست حجاب
دل چون ماهست در دل اندیشه مدار
انداز تو اندیشه گری را در آب
Doubt not! Your self dip in sleep;
The doubt a veil on the face of a moon be.
The heart is like moon, in the heart doubt not!
Cast in the water these dubious thoughts...
Rumi, Quatrain 83
Me: Say, many are the wells and springs,
The best to drink - from which?
Dervish:
وسیقوم معك رسول الخيال إلى المتخيلات،
فخذ منه ما أعطاك...
وانهض على طريقيك المثلى،
وقال: الرفيق الأعلى،
فسيقوم معك رسول العقول،
فخذ منه ما يقول
And will be with ye the messenger of dreams, imagery,
Take from him what will give...
And will come on your way the acmé,
And shall say, "The friend lofty, unique..."
And will be with ye the messenger of intelligénce,
Take from him what will say...¹
Ibn 'Arabi
Ah to that haughty bird which deem
That only in her land is spring...
The God to each nation gave
Something unique, its angels did elaborate
The mine; And wise is he, who knows all the rocks,
Who travels, and amass, and learns...
إشارة: لا تأخذ من اللبن سوى زبدة
المحض، وعليك بروح الأشياء
Sign: Don't drink a milk except
the pure quintessence,
and for thee the spirit of things.²
Ibn 'Arabi
Mountaineer skilful looks upon
The valley of the rocks,
But what he sees? Only them alone -
The highest mounts... "What for
To go to the river if
Ye can go to the sea..."
Said Leonardo, sign it be...
ولا تشرب من خمر العلوم إلاَّ السلافة
التي لم يعصرها الأرجل
Don't drink a wine of sciences except
the choicest wine untrampled with legs.²
Ibn 'Arabi
Beware of the gates of multitude -
When they shall open, in deluge
Ye drown... This life - like May -
Just moored, already sails away...
Philosophies and systems - it
Is groping in the snowy heath,
You go, and go, and only snow
Is everywhere...
ولا تشرب من المياه إلاّ المعصر،
فإن ماء التقطير فيه مزيد علم
Don't drink a water except distilled,
for there is in it
a plenty of knowledge.²
Ibn 'Arabi
Those scholars, poets illuminated, who
Absorbed the waters from all brooks,
The heights of centuries, ye ask
Examples, they: Thomas Aquinas, Nicholas
Of Cusa, Proclus, and so on...
The names of poets are well known.
ولا تأخذ من العسل سوى ما
ادخره النحل لنفسه
Only take that honey, which
the bees amassed for themselves.²
Ibn 'Arabi
The tombs are calm, in silence they
Hold the soul and wisdom. Hey,
Wayfarer, come and find
What lunar script does hide...
To the aforesaid I may add and say:
Some came as blessing with a light;
Some came as penance with a veil...
And yet another rhyme:
فلا كمال مع اتخاذ الصفات،
فإنه مقام النقص والآفات،
وإلا فأين حظ الأسماء،
وأين وجود الأرض والسماء،
وأين مرج البحرين،
وأين كرسي القدمين
Where attributes only - no perfection is there, nay,
For it is of decrease and wasting - a place.
But where the Names do reside,
Where being of earth and the sky;
And where commingled two seas;
Where chairs ancient, antique.³
Ibn 'Arabi
May 2019
1 Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of Revelations at Mosul
كتاب التنزلات الموصلية
2 Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of Cleaving the Breast
with the Knowledge Arcane
كتاب شق الجيب بعلم الغيب
3 Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of the Books
كتاب الكتب
Rumi, Quatrains
دیوان شمس. رباعیات
Translations from Farsi and Arabic
by Denis Bezmelnitsin
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