Sol 6.1

  1. Fear and intimacy do not go together.

    And love and tears cannot be parted.

  2. So tighten the reins of pretension, for it brings ruin,

    even if the unbridled one persists with it in its error.

  3. And turn back from misleading paths,

    for paths do not guide aright at every moment.

  4. Do not say, 'I am fearful and trembling,'

    nor, 'I am a lover'—that claim is fabricated.

  5. And do not presumptuously keep pace, on the morning of the race,

    with the racers, when you are worthless and a straggler.

  6. Keep to your station—helplessness—and accept it,

    for the earth lies low, however high the horizon is raised.

  7. The slave is of little account in the noble one's presence,

    and the star is effaced when dawn shines forth.

  8. Your unruly soul called you toward passions,

    and temperament, delusion, and folly lend it aid.

  9. And you passed the night absorbed in the soul's desires,

    wasting your time in play and becoming scattered.

  10. To you, religion is a saying you utter,

    and action has no foothold in what you said.

  11. Bewilderment, muddled notions, and wavering,

    and heedlessness and claims—all of them folly.

  12. You imitate a people with sayings you pilfer,

    but lovers have a state that cannot be stolen.

  13. So tighten the belts of resolve to catch up with them,

    for resolve is the finest thing with which to gird yourself.

  14. And do not console yourself with 'later,' for it is ruinous;

    only ignorance and folly have ever approved it.

  15. You have no certainty about the condition of life,

    yet you act in it as one who is certain.

  16. O you whose heart is inwardly asleep, though it is awake,

    if the heart sleeps, the pupils do not awaken.

  17. Do not try to unlock a difficulty without earnest effort,

    for no lock remains shut against its key.

  18. How many groups have raced toward a goal,

    yet winning the race was made easy for only a few.

  19. Risk yourself anew in the sea of piety;

    indeed, there both life and drowning are martyrdom.

  20. And you have claimed that the soul is pure;

    how so, when among the pure you are watered down?

  21. Where is the evidence for what you claim?

    By evidence, earnestness and flattery are discerned.

  22. For in the midday heats you feel neither hunger nor thirst,

    and in the deep darkness, neither wakefulness nor sleeplessness.

  23. Only someone discerning and perceptive fulfills resolve,

    urged on by two welcome impulses: love and fear.

  24. He feared a night assault and spent the night watching

    seas of death closing over souls.

  25. Sleepless of eyelid, immersed in thought and taking heed,

    neither dawn nor twilight finds him a heavy sleeper.

  26. Wrapped in night, his eyes lined with wakefulness,

    he drinks tears at morning and tears at evening.

  27. His outward self takes varied forms in nearness, and his inward self

    in love; the devout form different groups according to their states.

  28. Travelers toward God, whose mounts were not turned aside

    by the souls' desires, nor were they diverted by attachments.

  29. And the knowers, when their knowledge is sound,

    are for God when silent, and through God when they speak.

  30. Affirming His oneness, they do not turn their eyes

    toward other than God, secretly or openly, when they look.

  31. Their thoughts are radiant; their breaths are blossoms.

    Their eyelids are downpours; their inward parts are flames.

  32. Their tears forever stream from fear,

    but their ribs throb with love.

  33. Their bodies have become grazing creatures upon the earth,

    and folded within them are souls that pierce the unseen.

  34. God has secrets hidden among creation,

    with door-bars and locks set before them,

  35. and souls whose breaths grew pure and then spread

    through the secret realm, wafting love whenever breathed in.

  36. Joseph's recognition of his brothers after separation

    led to their reunion after they had parted.

  37. So know your God, and act after knowledge;

    for that is the root, and this the branch and leaves.

  38. And be patient a little, for the dwelling is falling into ruin,

    and everyone who settles there will depart and go away.

  39. And if some time from the days of youth stays true to you,

    cherish it, for life's last spark lingers only briefly.

  40. O you whose temples are gray, but whose idleness is not,

    renew the raiment of your robe, O threadbare one.

  41. Do not forget death's felling blow; you will remember it

    when the agony of terror and sweat envelops you,

  42. and the lying-down whose sudden arrival terrifies souls—

    if only dread could protect them from its sudden coming.

  43. I seek God's forgiveness for speech which my actions follow

    with shortcomings, so it never lacks a burden of guilt.

  44. I watch for dawn while my inward parts are dark;

    and can a heart that is all darkness shine?

  45. O you whom I address, while my condition bears witness

    that with these words I race ahead for my own soul:

  46. if we agree upon heedlessness and incapacity,

    then our pursuit of right guidance will not succeed.

  47. And people's differences in religion are established,

    yet in love of their worldly life they agree.

Sol 6.1