قف على أيمن الحمى كوقوفي

وتأمل بطرفك المطروفِ

Stand on the sanctuary's right-hand side, as I stand.

And contemplate with your stricken eye.

كسفت بالظهور شمسي فما كا

نت صلاتي إلا صلاة الكسوف

My sun was eclipsed by manifestation, so

my prayer was nothing but the solar-eclipse prayer.

ثم لما انجلت رأيت خضوعي

لي وشاهدت واصفي موصوفي

Then, when it cleared, I saw my submission

to myself, and witnessed my describer as the one I describe.

وانمحت في الوجود نقطة عيني

إنها لم تكن سوى مالوفي

And the point of my eye was effaced in existence;

indeed, it was nothing but the one familiar to me.

شق فجري فقمت حتى أصلي

قيل لي فانتظر أذان الصروف

My dawn broke, and I rose so that I might pray.

I was told: 'Then await the vicissitudes' call to prayer.'

فسمعت الصلاة خير من النو

م ينادي بها بلالي بجوفي

Then I heard, 'Prayer is better than sleep,'

my Bilal calling it out within me.

هو صلَّى إليَّ لا أنا صلَّيْ

تُ إليه واذكر صلاةَ الخسوف

It was he who prayed toward me, not I who prayed

toward him; remember the lunar-eclipse prayer.

يا خليليَّ بالأجارع حطّا

فعسى ربة الستائر توفي

O my two friends, halt in the sandy tracts;

perhaps the mistress of the curtains will keep faith.

وقفا بي على معالم سلع

فالنقى فالعقيق طاب وقوفي

And halt with me at the landmarks of Salʿ;

then al-Naqa, then al-ʿAqiq—sweet was my standing.

شمتُ من أيمن المنازل برقاً

لامعاً في وجودي المخطوف

I spied lightning from the right-hand side of the dwellings,

gleaming in my enraptured being.

وتغنت على أراكة كوني

ذات طوق بلحنها الموصوف

And on the arak tree of my being sang

a ringdove, with her described melody.

فهي طوراً كاسي وطرواً نديمي

كل مصغٍ لها من الداء عوفي

So she is at times my cup, and at times my drinking companion;

every listener to her is healed of sickness.

حبسوها لما استطابوا غناها

إنما الظرف طاب بالمظروف

They caged her when they found her song sweet;

the container was sweet only through what it contained.

هي محبوبتي لدي وعندي

ومعي وهي واحدي وألوفي

She is my beloved, in my presence and at my side,

and with me; she is my one and my thousands.

وهي عيني إذا بدت وهي غيري

حين تخفى فائْمَنْ بهذا المخوف

And she is my very self when she appears, and other than me

when she is hidden; so feel secure in this feared thing.

وكذاك الزجاج إن قابلته ال

شمس جاءت من لونه بصنوف

And likewise glass: if it is met by the

sun, she appears in various forms through its color.

وشخوص المرآة عبرة مثلي

وظلال الأراك داني القطوف

And the mirror's figures are a lesson for one like me,

and the shadows of the arak with its low-hanging fruit.

قمر وهي في الحقيقة شمس

نوره من ضيائها مستوفي

A moon—though she is in truth a sun;

its light is drawn in full from her radiance.

كل شيء قلْ هالكٌ صاحِ إلا

وجهه راغماً جميع الأنوف

Say, my friend: everything is perishing except

His face, humbling every nose.

أصدق الشعر قلْ ألا كلُّ شيءٍ

ما خلا الله باطلٌ قولَ صوفي

The truest poetry—say: 'Indeed, everything

apart from God is vain'—a Sufi's saying.

وكذاك الإجماع ليس لشيء

أثر في شيء سوى المعروف

Likewise, consensus holds that nothing has

an effect on anything except the Known One.

خذ بطبق الكتاب والسنة الغر

راء واتبع إجماع تلك الألوف

Hold to what accords with the Book and the radiant Sunna,

and follow the consensus of those thousands.

واقتحم معرك الحقيقة واضرب

في جيوش العدى بحد السيوف

And storm the battlefield of Reality, and strike

into the enemy armies with the edge of swords.

واخرق الحجب واسحق الكون وامحق

أو تردد بين الرجا والخوف

And rend the veils, crush the cosmos, and annihilate it,

or waver between hope and fear.

وتحقق بالمظهرين وكن في ال

حالتين الشجاع بين الصفوف

And attain realization in both manifestations, and in the

two states be the brave one among the ranks.

كن فتى رقَّ فاسترقَّ المعاني

ثم صافي ذات الستور فصوفي

Be a youth who grew tender and so enslaved meanings,

then befriended the veiled lady and was befriended in return.