The Invisible Beloved -- Ghazal 814 from 'Sunlight'

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

This wonderful Mevlana for morning tears of Joy, for Love, the Love We Are.

My Heart! O my Heart!

 

Two presentations of Ghazal 814 - a poetic version by Coleman Barks,

and a literal translation by A.J. Arberry:

 

 

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Whose idea was this,

to have the lover visible,

and the Beloved in visible!

 

So many people have died of their desiring

because of this. The lover cannot kiss

the lips he wants, so he bites himself!

 

Satisfaction is always two bow-shots away,

and yet something in the soul

prefers this unreachable Lover

to any one reachable.

 

This being locked-in,

is better than having the keys

to any consolation-house.

 

The Beloved's rejection is wanted more

than anyone else's acceptance.

 

World happiness is nothing.

Look for what Betami had, for what

Sanai and Attar wrote of.

 

A beautiful meal looks delicious.

Then one night passes, and the food passes

through you, becoming repellent filth.

 

Eat love-food.

Suckle the toe of a Lion,

as the baby

Abraham did in the cave.

 

But you should put away what you learned

as a foetus in your cave, that need for blood.

 

There is a tall tower that Love builds.

Live there in silence.

 

The One who knows all secrets

is here now, nearer

than your jugular vein.

 

-- Version by Coleman Barks

"Like This"

Maypop, 1990

 

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The lovers visible and the Beloved invisible who ever saw

such a love in the world?

Not one lip having attained the form of the Beloved, hundreds

of thousands of souls have expired.

Two bowshots' distance* shot an arrow from the heights, so

that it tore through the shields of the skies.

Not having drawn the skirt of the Beloved of the Unseen, the

hearts of thousands have suffered tribulation and beating;

Not having bitten the lip of Him whose lip is sweet, how

many have bitten the back of the hand in banishment!

Not having grazed on the sugar-cane of His lip, the heart has

grazed on His thousands of blandishments.

Not one rose having blossomed from His rose garden, hundreds

of thousands of thorns have pricked in the breast.

Though the soul has experienced nothing but cruelty from

Him, it has fled away from mortal fidelities in hope of Him;

It has preferred that pain over generosities, and has chosen

that cruelty above all fidelities.

His thorn has triumphed over all roses, His lock is more

delightful than a hundred keys.

His tyranny has carried off the ball from the turn of good

fortune; candies have blossomed from the poison of His wrath.

His rejection is better than the reception of others; ruby and

pearl are desirous of His stone.

These worldly happinesses are nothing; seek that happiness

which Bu Sai'id* possesses.

These augmentations of this world are less; seek that

augmentation which Ba Yazid* possesses.

That augmentation is your six-fingered hand; its value is less,

though apparently it is augmenting.

Seek that radiance which Sana'i* expounded, that Unique One

whose uniqueness Attar* revealed.

Fat and sweet food appear pure and good; one night they

passed with you, and became filth.

Eat the fat and sweet of the food of love, that your wings may

sprout and you may know how to fly.

After all, Abraham as a child in the cave sucked from the

fingertips of a lion.

Dismiss that; that foetus in the womb sucked the water of life

from blood.

The tall stature which heaven made upright in the end became

bowed like crooked heaven;

The tall stature which Love raised up, its stature transcended

the glorious Throne.

Nay, be silent; he who knows all secrets is present; He said,

We are nearer than the jugular vein.*

 

-- Translation by A.J. Arberry

"Mystical Poems of Rumi 1"

The University of Chicago Press, 1968

 

Arberry's Notes:

 

For the circumstances of composition, see Aflaki as quoted by F.

*"Two bowshots' distance" See Koran 53:9, i.e. "spiritual proximity."

* "Bu Sa'id": the famous Persian mystic and poet (d. 440/1049).

* "Bu Yazid": a play on words. Abu Yazid-i Bastami: the famous

mystic of Khorasan (d. 261/874 or 264/877), is the hero of many

spiritual anecdotes; see Ritter in E.I. I:162-63.

* "Seek that radiance which Sana'i* expounded, that Unique One

whose uniqueness Attar* revealed": More play on words. Sana'i

and Attar were great mystical poets.

* "We are nearer than the jugular vein": Rumi quotes Koran 50:16.

 

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Love,

Mazie

 

 

 

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