Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Note: I will be out of town for a few days. Blog will resume next week. Have a great week, all.
The following is from Ivan Granger's website, www.poetry-chaikhana.com (Thanks again, Ivan).
Mystic Chat
By Hakim Sanai
(1044? - 1150?)
English version by Peter Lamborn Wilson and Nasrollah Pourjavady
My dear!
You haven't the feet
for this path --
why struggle?
You've no idea where
the idol's to be found --
what's all this
mystic chat?
What can be done
with quarrelsome
fellow travelers,
boastful
marketplace
morons?
If you were really a lover
you'd see that faith and infidelity
are one...
Oh, what's the use?
nit-picking
about such things
is a hobby for
numb brains.
You are pure spirit
but imagine yourself a corpse!
pure water which thinks
it's the pot!
Everything you want
must be searched for --
except the Friend.
If you don't find Him
you'll never
be able
to start
to even
look.
Yes,
you can be sure:
You are not Him --
unless
you can remove yourself
from between
yourself
and Him --
in which case
you
are
Him.
-- from The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry, Translated by Peter Lamborn Wilson / Translated by Nasrollah Pourjavady
Here,in this ancient poet's work, is a familiar theme: in order to find the "Friend" (the Divine Reality), one should give up vain struggle and searching, and simply "get out of the way." Too often, we stand in our own light and thus cannot see the very thing we are seeking.
