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If you do not know me, then ask the dark night
- night is lover's confidant, the witness of this lamentation
and tears.
Why talk of night? For the lover displays a thousand
signs, the least of which are tears, yellow cheeks, a frail
body, and failing health.
In weeping he is like the clouds, in perseverance like
the mountains, in prostration like water, in lowliness like
dirt in the road.
But all these afflictions surround his garden like
thorns – within it are roses, the Beloved, and a flowing
fountain.
When you pass by the garden's wall and enter into its
greenery, you will give thanks and prostrate yourself in
gratitude:
"Thanksgiving and praise belong to God! For He has
taken away autumn's cruelty. The earth has blossomed,
spring has sown its face!
A thousand naked branches have put on robes of
flowers! A thousand desert thorns have lost their teeth!"
How should the man of intellect know the sweetness
of heartache for the Beloved? He is like a weaver who knows
not the arts of war and horsemanship.
The lovers are your brother, mother, and father – for
they have all become one, kneaded together by Love.
When a thousand corpses are thrown into the saltmines,
they all become salt – no duality remains, no "man from Marv" or
"man from Balkh."
Do not pull in the reins of speech because of the thick-
headedness of your bored listeners! Behold the thirty angels
in heaven when you pronounce your words!
-- Ghazal (Ode) 3041
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983
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