[Poetry Chaikhana] Mahmud Shabistari - The Mirror (from The Secret Rose Garden)

[Guest guest]

Nice one from Ivan.

 

>

> The Mirror (from The Secret Rose Garden)

>

> By Mahmud Shabistari

>

>

> (1250? - 1340)

>

> English version by Florence Lederer

>

>

>

> Your eye has not strength enough

>

> to gaze at the burning sun,

>

> but you can see its burning light

>

> by watching its reflection

>

> mirrored in the water.

>

>

>

> So the reflection of Absolute Being

>

> can be viewed in the mirror of Not-Being,

>

> for nonexistence, being opposite Reality,

>

> instantly catches its reflection.

>

>

>

> Know the world from end to end is a mirror;

>

> in each atom a hundred suns are concealed.

>

> If you pierce the heart of a single drop of water,

>

> from it will flow a hundred clear oceans;

>

> if you look intently at each speck of dust,

>

> in it you will see a thousand beings.

>

> A gnat in its limbs is like an elephant;

>

> in name a drop of water resembles the Nile.

>

> In the heart of a barleycorn is stored a hundred harvests.

>

> Within a millet-seed a world exists.

>

> In an insects wing is an ocean of life.

>

> A heaven is concealed in the pupil of an eye.

>

> The core at the center of the heart is small,

>

> yet the Lord of both worlds will enter there.

>

>

>

> -- from The Secret Rose Garden: Mahmud Shabistari,

> Translated by Florence Lederer / Edited by David Fideler

> Amazon.com

>

> / Photo by striatic /

>

>

> ============

>

> Thought for the Day:

>

> Build up a tolerance for the unknown.

>

>

>

> How can you be at home in the immense, mysterious,

>

> and formless Self,

>

> when you are only at ease with what the mind has defined?

> ============

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> Hi Alan -

>

>

>

> More on light... and reflection.

>

>

>

> Know the world from end to end is a mirror;

>

> in each atom a hundred suns are concealed.

>

>

>

> Whether we know it or not, as we walk through each day we

> shine.

>

>

>

> We contain universes and infinities.

>

>

>

> The core at the center of the heart is small,

>

> yet the Lord of both worlds will enter there.

>

>

>

> --

>

>

>

> Mahmud Shabistari lived in Persia (Iran) during the time of

> the Mongol invasions of the region. It was a time of

> massacres and religious sectarianism. Yet it is also during

> this time that the Golden Age of Persian Sufism emerged.

>

>

>

> Shabistari's Secret Rose Garden (the Gulistan-i Raz,

> which can also be translated as The Rose Garden of Mystery)

> is considered to be one of the greatest works of Persian

> Sufism.

>

>

>

> The value of Shabistari's work was recognized almost

> immediately. Many commentaries on the work by other Sufi

> mystics soon began to appear. The Secret Rose Garden

> quickly was regarded as one of the central works of Sufism.

>

>

>

> Ivan

> Share Your Thoughts on today's poem or my commentary...

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> New on the Poetry Chaikhana Blog

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> In addition to the daily poem, other recent

> blog posts include:

>

> Video - Hyperpoetical Journey / Kahlil

> Gibran - A poem by Kahlil Gibran. An astronomical vision of

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> Stork Migrations and Reading a Poem -

> Comments (4) I just returned from a walk along the shore of

> a nearby lake. Eight majestic white wood storks were

> drifting along the surface, then, at some mutually agreed

> upon signal, they took off one after the other, reaching out

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>

> Watching them, I thought, “Reading a poem is like

> this.†More

> - More

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