ذكر المعاهد والدمن — أبو المعالي الطالوي

He remembered the familiar haunts and old dwelling-traces,

and the pastures of the nasal-voiced gazelle.

And, his heart aflame, he was grieved,

long absent from his homeland,

in Rum, by the lament of a dove,

ash-gray, calling from a branch.

Wordless, yet her melody reveals

the hidden secret of passionate love.

On a branch of the arak tree she reveals

the manifold forms and kinds of sorrow.

Whenever Maʿbad sought to rival

her melody, he sang out of tune.

She dictated from the leaves what

she had studied in the ways of sorrow.

And she narrated the traditions of love,

with her sound and fair chain of transmission,

from a tear poured forth,

streaming, and a body brought low;

from anguish, from a sigh,

from a wounded eye, and from—

She scatters tears—if only she

knew, in her sorrow, for whom.

I shared with her memories of the cherished grounds;

may pouring rain water those grounds!

Where the dwellings are spacious,

in Damascus, a paradise for those who dwell there:

then its Barad, then its Barid,

then the courtyard of its beautiful congregational mosque,

then its arcade, where the obligatory prayers

are performed along with the Sunnah prayers;

then the clarity of its Kawthar waters,

from Salsabil, never stagnant;

then the noonday resting-place on those hills,

then the shade of those branches,

then the watercourse of Banas, flowing to

a gravelly plain amid a lush garden.

My longing is for my time there—

may that time be watered by morning rains—

when youth was a dwelling,

and beautiful women its inhabitants,

each with a slender waist,

supple as the nasal-voiced fawn,

slender, upon whose flank was poured

the water of youth by the prime of time.

I have not forgotten her on the day of farewell,

nor her words at departure,

as tears scattered pearls

from narcissus eyes, watering the old dwelling-traces:

“O my torment! Separation has destroyed

a lover sorely tried by you.

Why not return? For I have

a heart held hostage by love for you.”

I answered her: “No, by Him

to whom my secret is as clear as the manifest,

or who left me in the shelter of one

for whom God's shadow is a pillar.”

The one whose lights overflow from

a divine mystery made manifest;

and drawing abundance from the principles

of his knowledge are those of discernment;

the manifestation of Being, the revealer of the

Names from a once-hidden outpouring;

rather, the point of the all-encompassing Essence,

and free from time;

I mean by him Saʿd of noble deeds,

of mercies and favors,

the secret of the caliph and creation,

of manifestation and what lies hidden.

Seek refuge, then, at his doors;

you will be safe from the trials of time.

And kiss the dust of his thresholds,

for they are safety from afflictions.

And know him truly before

the body's parts fall apart.

For he is the Imam; there is no veiled allusion

in these words, for anyone who understands.

And he is the one who has become

entrusted with the secret of the caliphate.

And do you not see the Trustworthy Spirit,

how he has taken refuge in his secret?

Through him he proceeds in justice,

along a path drawn from the Prophet's ways.

And indeed, toward his door I turned

my hope, when my dwelling-space grew cramped;

and I expected good, remembering:

“I am with My servant as he expects.”

For he is the one who grants wishes

from his two palms, with no reminder of favors.

May God extend his shade

throughout the worlds for all time,

and his sons, moons of the mansions,

wherever a dwelling holds them,

who join the ends of happiness

and lordship in a single bond.

May time avert its calamities

and vicissitudes from them and from—

by Muhammad and his family,

the people of eloquence and fluent speech.