1. يا شمعة هي في كل الفوانيسِ

    يخالف العقل هذا في التقايسِ

    O candle that is in every lantern,

    reason disputes this through comparative reasoning.

  2. وهو المحقق عند العارفين به

    كشف بكشف وتلبيس بتلبيس

    Yet it is established among those who know Him:

    unveiling through unveiling, and disguise through disguise.

  3. لم يبق مني به شيء سواه ولم

    يظهر كما هو لي في وصف تقديس

    Through Him, nothing of me remained but Him, nor

    did He appear to me as He is in a description of sanctification.

  4. فزلت عني وزال الكون أجمعه

    عندي كما وحشتي زالت وتأنيسي

    So I vanished from myself, and the whole cosmos vanished

    for me, just as my loneliness and my solace vanished.

  5. وكان هذا بسر لاح لي زمناً

    هو الوجود وتفريعي وتأسيسي

    And this was through a secret that appeared to me for a time:

    it is existence, my branching forth and my foundation.

  6. من كل شيء تبدى لي فحققه

    قلبي فزال بتحقيقي وتطميسي

    From everything it appeared to me, and was affirmed

    by my heart; then it vanished through my realization and effacement.

  7. فصرت لا هو عن ذوق ولست أنا

    وطهر الغيب بالأغيار تدنيسي

    Thus, through spiritual tasting, I became not He, nor am I myself;

    and the unseen cleansed me of the defilement of otherness.

  8. وقد بدا سر ذاك السر يخبرني

    عن آدم العلم بالأسما وإبليس

    And the secret of that secret appeared, telling me

    of Adam, knowledge of the names, and Iblis.

  9. فيا حقيقة كوني أنت شمس ضحى

    عليك غيمة تنويعي وتجنيسي

    So, O reality of my being, you are the sun of midmorning;

    over you lies the cloud of my sorting into kinds and genera.

  10. أو كالسواد الذي في العين يظهر من

    قرص الأشعة في تحديق تحييس

    Or like the blackness that appears in the eye from

    the disk of rays, when staring in bewilderment.

  11. كالعنكبوت بنت نفس لها خيماً

    حتى بها وهنت من طول تعنيس

    Like a spider, a soul built tents for itself,

    until it weakened in them from prolonged spinsterhood.

  12. كيس تقدر من شتى الشئون له

    والسر أجمعه في ذلك الكيس

    A bag was formed for it from diverse affairs,

    and the entire secret is in that bag.

  13. طرقت دير الهوىدارت دوائره

    على الرهابين فيه والقساقيس

    I knocked at love's monastery; its fortunes turned

    against the monks within it and the priests.

  14. نفوس أغيار عين في برانسها

    مزخرفات كأذناب الطواويس

    Souls of beings other than the Essence, in their cowls,

    adorned like the tails of peacocks.

  15. حتى نظرت بعين العين فانكشفت

    موتَى الشماميس منها في النواميس

    Until I looked with the eye of the Essence, and there were revealed

    the dead deacons among them, within the sacred laws.

  16. وأكبر الحق في واهي أباطله

    وقد تعالى على كل الوساويس

    And I magnify the Truth amid its flimsy falsehoods,

    and it is exalted above all whisperings of doubt.

  17. وكل ما كان عند العقل أدرسه

    درسته وتلاشى أمر تدريسي

    And all that I once studied with reason,

    I effaced it, and the business of my teaching vanished.

  18. وأصبح الواحد المعروف مشتهراً

    عندي ولا عند لي من فرط تفليسي

    And the known One became renowned

    in my presence—yet I have no 'presence,' so utter is my bankruptcy.

  19. ولم يكن غيره الثاني له ونفى

    تثليث ظني وتربيعي وتخميسي

    Nor was any other a second to Him, and He negated

    the tripling of my conjecture, my quadrupling and my quintupling.

  20. بالله قف أيها الساري بنا وبه

    يبدي مراتب إدلاج وتعريس

    By God, halt, O night-traveler journeying with us and Him,

    revealing stages of night travel and halting for rest.

  21. واعطف على العيس لا تجذب أعنتها

    إلا إليك وجد واعطف على العيس

    And be gentle with the pale camels; do not pull their reins

    except toward yourself; be generous, and be gentle with the pale camels.

  22. تبارك الله لي وجه الحبيب بدا

    وقد تبسم لي من بعد تعبيس

    Blessed be God! The beloved's face appeared to me,

    and it smiled at me after frowning.

  23. عرشي أتى من سباغيٍّ لقدس هدى

    ومع سليمانه إسلام بلقيس

    My throne came from a 'Sabāghī' to the sanctity of guidance,

    and with its Solomon came Bilqis's submission.

  24. وعاد ما كان مني بالغداة مضى

    وأذّن الظهر بي في وقت تغليس

    And what had departed from me in the morning returned,

    and noon called to prayer through me in the hour of dawn's darkness.

  25. وللبداية قد عادت نهايتنا

    وأخلصت عندنا كل الجواسيس

    And our end has returned to the beginning,

    and all the spies among us became sincere.

  26. والكل أصبح نوراً بعد ظلمته

    وقد تطهّر منه كل تنجيس

    And everything became light after its darkness,

    and every defilement was cleansed from it.

  27. وقد رأى الكل في تغيير فطرتهم

    مذاهباً أدركوها بالمقاييس

    And everyone, in changing their innate nature, saw

    doctrines they grasped through comparisons.

  28. وعين ما أنا مفطور عليه وهم

    مثلي هو الحق عندي دون تنفيس

    And the very thing upon which I am innately formed—and they,

    like me—is the Truth to me, without delay.

  29. فاكشف ولا تخترع ما أنت فيه تفز

    بدين طه وداود وجرجيس

    So uncover, do not invent, the state you are in; you will triumph

    through the faith of Taha, David, and Jirjis.

  30. وقل وما أنا ممن بالتكلف قد

    أتى إليكم خلافا للمناحيس

    And say: 'I am not among those who, with affectation, have

    come to you—unlike the ill-fated ones.'