شربت كأسا لها الأرواح ترتاح

كاسا بها الروح والريحان والراح

I drank a cup in which souls find repose,

A cup containing solace, sweet basil, and wine.

فيا لها خمرة صرفا مشعشعة

كأنها في ظلام الليل مصباح

Oh, what a wine it is—pure and radiant!

As though it were a lamp in the darkness of night.

من عهد آدم بل من قبله عصرت

فمذ بدت حدثتنا بالألى راحوا

Pressed in Adam's age—indeed, before his time—

When it appeared, it told us of those who had departed.

يا صاح هذى سلاف ما تناولها

إلا رجال ببيد العشق قد ساحوا

Friend, this is choice wine that none have tasted

Except men who have wandered through love's deserts.

لله قوم شربناها بصحبتهم

فاسكرتهم وبالأسرار ماباحوا

Praise be to God for those in whose company we drank it;

It intoxicated them, yet they divulged no secrets.

ما زلت أشربها والليل معتكر

حتى بدا من سجوف الأفق إصباح

I kept drinking it while the night was dark and turbid,

Until daybreak appeared through the horizon's curtains.

والحان ترقص والأرواح قد صعدت

لمشهد السر فالأرواح أرواح

And the tavern danced, and the souls had ascended

To the vision of the mystery—for souls are souls.

غبنا عن المشهد الداني ومهبطه

نحو العلو وسر السر مفتاح

We vanished from the lower scene and its place of descent,

Toward the heights; the secret of the secret is a key.

فالروح فانية في سر مشهدها

وجسمها من لذيذ الشوق أشباح

The soul is effaced in the mystery of its vision,

And its body, through sweet longing, is phantoms.

والفوز بالقرب يهنيني فيضحكني

لكنني خوف فقد القرب نواح

Attaining nearness delights me and makes me laugh,

Yet I wail for fear of losing that nearness.

يظنني الجاهل الأعمى أخا خطل

وما درى أنني في العشق جحجاح

The blind ignoramus thinks me a man of folly,

Not knowing that in love I am a noble champion.

علقتها ظبية في الحسن مفردة

عبيرها المسك أما الخد تفاح

I loved her—a gazelle unique in beauty;

Her fragrance is musk; her cheek is an apple.

أهيم شوقا ووجدا في محبتها

ولى فؤاد لطيب الوصل يرتاح

I wander in longing and ecstasy, loving her,

And I have a heart that finds repose in the sweetness of union.

قبلى بها هامت العشاق من وله

وفي محبتها بالوجد قد صاحوا

Before me, lovers were distraught over her through passionate infatuation,

And in loving her they cried out in ecstasy.

يالأئما في الهوى جهلا أتحسبه

سهلا أفق فلهيب العشق لفاح

O you who ignorantly reproach love, do you think it

Easy? Awaken! Love's blaze scorches.

باتت تغازلني والكاس في يدها

وبدر وجنتها بالحسن وضاح

She wooed me through the night, the cup in her hand,

And the full moon of her cheek shone bright with beauty.

كم فتت الشوق أكبادا ومزقها

لما صفت لهم في العشق أقداح

How many livers longing has shattered and torn apart,

When cups grew clear for them in love.

دعنى ونفسي أفاسي ما ألذ به

فإنني في بحار العشق سباح

Leave me to myself to [endure] what I delight in;

For I am a swimmer in the seas of love.

تلوم والشوق يطويني وينشرني

وأنت من نصب الأشواق مرتاح

You reproach me while longing folds me up and unfolds me,

While you rest free of the weariness of yearning.

للعشق قوم شعار الذل ملبسهم

ودمعهم في العلى غاد ورواح

Love has a people clothed in the inner garment of abasement;

Their tears travel the heights, morning and evening.

فالبعد قرب وعين القرب بعدهم

أما الفساد ظمأ والخسر أرباح

Distance is nearness, and nearness itself is their distance;

As for corruption, it is thirst; loss is profit.

عين الشهود لنور الحق غيبتهم

ونفس لكنتهم بالحق إفصاح

The very witnessing of the light of the Truth is their absence,

And their very stammering is eloquence through the Truth.

والصبر حلو وطعم الحلو صبرهم

وذمهم في عيون النفس تمداح

Patience is sweet, and sweetness tastes of their bitter aloe;

And blame of them, in the eyes of the self, is praise.

ونومهم سهر في حان مشدها

وسؤلهم في شهود الغيب إلحاح

Their sleep is wakefulness in the tavern of the self's [vision];

Their plea is insistent in witnessing the unseen.

رجال حال ولكن في صدورهم

عين الحقيقة والكتمان غيضاح

Men of spiritual states, yet within their breasts

Is the essence of reality; concealment is [clarification].

فهم عيون الورى لكن والدهم

أبو العيون أمام القوم إذ لاحوا

They are the eyes of humankind, but their father

Is Abu al-Uyun, at the head of the company when they shine forth.

لازمت صحبته والناس في عمة

ووبل دمعى بغيّ النفس سحاح

I kept his company while people wandered in bewilderment,

And the rain of my tears poured in torrents over the self's waywardness.

كأنني الليث في الآجام في عمه

ووبل دمعي بغي النفس سحاح

As though I were a lion in the thickets, bewildered,

And the rain of my tears poured in torrents over the self's waywardness.

فقيدتني يراع في صحائفه

إذ في يديه لأهل الغي ألواح

So a reed pen bound me within his pages,

For in his hands are tablets for those who stray.

نور الطريق ومشكاه السنا لمعت

وفي سفين بحار القوم ملاح

The path's light and the niche of radiance shone,

And he is a mariner aboard the vessels of the people's seas.

أبو العيون سقاني الكاس مترعة

من ورد صفو بها العلات تنزاح

Abu al-Uyun gave me the cup to drink, brimful,

From a draught of purity, through which ailments are dispelled.

شطحت في مهمه العشاق منتشيا

والعاشق المرتوى بالسكر شطاح

I spoke ecstatically in the lovers' trackless wilderness, exhilarated,

And the lover sated with intoxication is prone to ecstatic utterance.

أسيح بالشوق أعواما فأحسبها

يوما وإني لنيل الوصل ساح

I wander in longing for years, yet reckon them

A single day; I am a wanderer seeking union.

قصدى الدنو وآمالي تحدثني

به وغني لسر السر طماح

My aim is nearness, and my hopes speak to me

Of it; my wealth aspires to the secret of the secret.

وربك الفاعل المختار ذو كرم

رب كريم لطرق الخير فتاح

Your Lord, the freely choosing Doer, is bountiful,

A generous Lord who opens the ways of goodness.

له مواهب لا يحصى لها عدد

للخير والبر والإحسان مناح

He has gifts whose number cannot be counted,

A lavish giver of goodness, righteousness, and kindness.

يا رب حقق رجائي فيك يا أملى

بجاه من شرعه في الكون إصلاح

Lord, fulfill my hope in You, O my hope,

Through the honor of him whose law brings reform to the world.

صلى عليه إله العرش ما بزغت

شمس السما أو بدا في الكون مصباح

May the God of the Throne bless him as long as

The sun of heaven rises, or a lamp appears in the world.