Sol 6.1

  1. Do not ask me, for I do not

    know the meaning of happiness—

  2. nothing but a word that has no

    meaning and offers no benefit.

  3. Perhaps it is found in

    Paradise, but through martyrdom.

  4. Indeed, what made the Sufi

    favor asceticism

  5. was his knowledge that in this

    world no one is happy by choice.

  6. Ah, if your father had been

    endowed with shrewdness and leadership,

  7. he would not have tasted what he tasted until

    he had attained his wish in eternal life.

  8. Iblis beguiled him with

    immortality, and led him away from it.

  9. So he disobeyed his Lord—if only the

    sentence had been annihilation!

  10. I have nothing but this;

    do not seek more from me.

  11. Ask, if you wish, the dervishes

    of the order.

  12. You may strive among them for an answer

    to the question.

  13. For they know it better than

    I do, in truth,

  14. since they long to believe

    the impossible.

  15. Or ask about it the brother of the

    skies, who may live happily

  16. with a wing and open space,

    and grains from the harvest,

  17. and a pool and a companion,

    and singing and song,

  18. and with a nest that cradled chicks

    upon a swaying branch.

  19. His concern is birdsong; he does not

    know what shackles mean.

  20. He is not beguiled by a promise,

    no, nor does he fear a threat.

  21. He has no wealth, for in

    wealth lies the misery of existence.

  22. He has no speech, for

    speech increases with ignorance.

  23. He has no knowledge—and is there in

    knowledge anything praiseworthy?

  24. Indeed, he is free of worry

    and of anyone who schemes and plots.

  25. Ask him; he may tell you what

    the meaning of happiness is,

  26. and furnish you with a text

    or proof.

  27. He may see it in debauchery

    or worship.

  28. So let him say what he will, for it is

    the impossible.

Sol 6.1