Thirst for the Friend

If you are not going to bed, then sit, I am going.
Tell your tale, I have told mine.
I have had enough of tales and am like a drunkard -
slumber is making me lurch and fall in every direction.
Whether asleep or awake, I am thirsty for that Friend,
the companion and mate of His Image's form.
Like the form in a mirror I follow that Face, displaying
and concealing His Attributes.
When He laughs, I laugh, and when He becomes agitated,
so do I.
Say the rest Thyself - for the pearls of meaning I have
strung on speech's necklace derive from Thy Ocean.

-- Ode 1451
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

The media:
http://tinyurl.com/yayhob

Thirst for the Friend