1. بدت الحقيقة من خلال ستورِها

    واستأنست من بعد طول نفورِها

    Truth appeared through her veils,

    and grew intimate after her long estrangement.

  2. وتبسمت في وجه عاشقها الذي

    قد هام منها في بياض ثغورها

    And she smiled into the face of her lover, who

    had become enraptured by her in the whiteness of her teeth.

  3. وتلبست للطارقين على الهوى

    بسواد مقلتها وبيض شعورها

    And for those who knock upon love, she clothed herself

    in the blackness of her eye and the whiteness of her hair.

  4. فأقم قوامك وانتظر وانظر ولا

    تشغل زمانك بالجنان وحورها

    So straighten your bearing, wait, look, and do not

    occupy your time with Paradise's gardens and their houris.

  5. واخلع لها ثوب الفنا هي بالفنا

    واقبل على المرفوع من مكسورها

    And cast off for her the robe of annihilation; she is in annihilation.

    And turn toward what is uplifted from her broken form.

  6. لا بل نعم بل كيف بل كم هذه

    هي روضة قد عطرت بزهورها

    No, rather yes, rather how, rather how many—this

    is a garden perfumed by her flowers.

  7. وشدت على عيدانها أطيارها

    فاسمع معي منها غناء طيورها

    And her birds sang upon her boughs;

    so hear with me, from her, the song of her birds.

  8. وانظر لبلبلها يغرد مطرباً

    في دوح هذا الكون مع شحرورها

    And watch her nightingale singing enchantingly

    amid the spreading trees of this cosmos, with her blackbird.

  9. صدق الذي قد قال فيما قاله

    في طيه الترتيب من منشورها

    True was the one who spoke, in what he said,

    in his folding up the order of her unfolded form:

  10. خفيت وما خفيت وقد ظهرت وما

    ظهرت وقام خفاؤها بظهورها

    She was hidden yet not hidden; she appeared yet did not

    appear, and her concealment subsisted through her appearance.

  11. كتم ولا كتم وإفشاءٌ ولا

    إفشاءَ فيها عند أهل أمورها

    Concealment yet no concealment, disclosure yet no

    disclosure in her, for those versed in her affairs.

  12. هي وهْي وهْي هِي التي هي عندهم

    هي عندنا هي في حجاب خدورها

    She, and she, and she—she who is she to them—

    is she to us, she behind the veil of her inner chambers.

  13. شمس بها كل الشموس تنورت

    منها ولاحت في ذوات بدورها

    A sun: through her all suns were illumined,

    from her, and shone in the essences of her full moons.

  14. من قال من هي قلت من هي مثله

    قولا يحققني بورد صدورها

    Whoever said, 'Who is she?'—I said, 'Who is she?' like him,

    a saying that brings me realization through the roses of her breasts.

  15. هي هكذا هي هكذا هي هكذا

    يا تائهاً في نفسه بخطورها

    She is thus, she is thus, she is thus,

    O you lost within yourself as she comes to mind.

  16. لا مثل قولك هكذا يا هكذا

    ما حزنها في القلب مثل سرورها

    Not like your saying 'thus,' O you who are thus!

    Her sorrow in the heart is not like her joy.

  17. كلا ولا خيراتها في قربنا

    منها كمثل البعد وقت شرورها

    Not at all! Nor are her blessings in our nearness

    to her like distance at the time of her evils.

  18. طابت فطيبتها تفوح بطيها

    في وردة الأكوان من منشورها

    She grew fragrant; her perfume wafts in her folded form,

    within the rose of the worlds, from her unfolded form.

  19. الله أكبر إنها النبأ الذي

    في نارها وقع الجهول ونورها

    God is greatest! She is the tidings—

    into her fire and her light the ignorant one fell.

  20. ولقد بدت كاساتها مملوءة

    من مائها الصافي وصرف خمورها

    And indeed her cups appeared, filled

    with her clear water and her unmixed wines,

  21. ولطيف ما قد سال من لبن لنا

    في ضرع نسبتنا بأرض نهورها

    and the subtle essence of the milk that flowed for us

    in the udder of our kinship, in the land of her rivers,

  22. وحلاوة العسل الذي هو رائق

    من نحل أنفسنا وبيت قبورها

    and the sweetness of honey, clear and pure,

    from the bees of our souls and the house of her graves.

  23. هي سورة في الذكر تتلى دائماً

    هي صورة من نفحها في صورها

    She is a surah in the Remembrance, recited always;

    she is a form from her blowing into her trumpet.

  24. قالت بها كل الرجال كقولنا

    لكن بنا قالوا لأجل قدورها

    All the men spoke through her, as we speak,

    but through us they spoke, for the sake of her cauldrons:

  25. تلك القدور الراسيات على العمى

    تلك التماثيل التي لحجورها

    those cauldrons firmly anchored upon blindness,

    those statues that belong to her laps.

  26. عكفوا عليها لائذين بحبها

    إن المحبة دكها في طورها

    They devoted themselves to them, taking refuge in her love;

    love indeed is her shattering on her Mount.

  27. ناجى بها موسى الكليم وقد رقى

    عيسى بها روح الدجى ببكورها

    Moses, the Interlocutor, communed through her; and a healing charm was recited

    by Jesus, through her, over the spirit of night with her dawn.

  28. وتبينت في آدم الجسد الذي

    هو للتراب المحض من مقبورها

    And she became manifest in Adam, the body that

    belongs to pure dust, from her buried form.

  29. وأتاك إسلام الخليل بها وقد

    سكنت مع الحركات عامر دورها

    And the Friend's submission came to you through her, while

    you grew still amid movements, inhabiting her houses.

  30. فاستحلها بيضاء سوداء السوى

    بك وافهم المقصود من مذكورها

    So deem her lawful, white yet black in otherness

    through you, and understand the intent of what is said of her.

  31. صح الحديث فخذ بما هو ظاهر

    هذا هو المعروف من منكورها

    The saying is sound; so hold fast to what is apparent.

    This is what is known of her unknown.

  32. عين غدت كل العيون جفونها

    يا قطرة فزنا بكل بحورها

    An eye: all eyes have become her eyelids.

    O drop, we have won all her seas!

  33. جيد الزمان بعقدها متزين

    وهي التي تزهو ببيض نحورها

    The neck of time is adorned with her necklace,

    and she is the one who glories in her white throats.

  34. ولها بها منها صلاة شئونها

    تتلو السلام بصفوها لكدورها

    And to her, through her, from her, is the prayer of her aspects,

    reciting peace through her clarity to her cloudiness,

  35. ما هينمت نسماتها وتألقت

    منها البروق على مرور دهورها

    as long as her breezes murmur and there gleam

    from her the lightning flashes, as her ages pass.

  36. وبها زهت ذات الستور ملاحة

    وتنزهت في عاليات قصورها

    And through her the veiled one shone in loveliness,

    and strolled within her lofty palaces.

  37. وتفاخرت وسمت على كل الورى

    وتطاولت عنهم بنفي قصورها

    And she boasted and rose above all creation,

    and towered beyond them, free of all shortcomings.

  38. قصرت محاسنها على عشاقها

    فاشتاق ناظرها إلى منظورها

    She confined her beauties to her lovers,

    so her beholder yearned for what he beheld of her.