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Sunlight presents Ghazal 1634 , in a poetic version by Jonathan Star and in translation by A.J. Arberry:
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"This Will Not Win Him"
Reason says,
I will win him with my eloquence.
Love says,
I will win him with my silence.
Soul says,
How can I ever win him
When all I have is already his?
He does not want, he does not worry,
He does not seek a sublime state of euphoria -
How then can I win him
With sweet wine or gold? . . .
He is not bound by the senses –
How then can I win him
With all the riches of China?
He is an angel,
Though he appears in the form of a man.
Even angels cannot fly in his presence -
How then can I win him
By assuming a heavenly form?
He flies on the wings of God,
His food is pure light –
How then can I win him
With a loaf of baked bread?
He is neither a merchant, nor a tradesman -
How then can I win him
With a plan of great profit?
He is not blind, nor easily fooled -
How then can I win him
By lying in bed as if gravely ill?
I will go mad, pull out my hair,
Grind my face in the dirt –
How will this win him?
He sees everything –
how can I ever fool him?
He is not a seeker of fame,
A prince addicted to the praise of poets –
How then can I win him
With flowing rhymes and poetic verses?
The glory of his unseen form
Fills the whole universe
How then can I win him
With a mere promise of paradise?
I may cover the earth with roses,
I may fill the ocean with tears,
I may shake the heavens with praises -
none of this will win him.
There is only one way to win him,
this Beloved of mine -
Become his.
-- Version by Jonathan Star
"A Garden Beyond Paradise"
Bantam Books, 1992
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Reason says, I will beguile him with the tongue;" Love
says, "Be silent. I will beguile him with the soul."
The soul says to the heart, "Go, do not laugh at me
and yourself. What is there that is not his, that I may
beguile him thereby?"
He is not sorrowful and anxious and seeking oblivion
that I may beguile him with wine and a heavy measure.
The arrow of his glance needs not a bow that I should
beguile the shaft of his gaze with a bow.
He is not prisoner of the world, fettered to this world
of earth, that I should beguile him with gold of the
kingdom of the world.
He is an angel, though in form he is a man; he is not
lustful that I should beguile him with women.
Angels start away from the house wherein this form
is, so how should I beguile him with such a form and
likeness?
He does not take a flock of horses, since he flies on wings;
his food is light, so how should I beguile him with bread?
He is not a merchant and trafficker in the market of the
world that I should beguile him with enchantment of gain
and loss.
He is not veiled that I should make myself out sick and
utter sighs, to beguile him with lamentation.
I will bind my head and bow my head, for I have got out
of hand; I will not beguile his compassion with sickness or
fluttering.
Hair by hair he sees my crookedness and feigning; what's
hidden from him that I should beguile him with anything
hidden.
He is not a seeker of fame, a prince addicted to poets,
that I should beguile him with verses and lyrics and
flowing poetry.
The glory of the unseen form is too great for me to
beguile it with blessing or Paradise.
Shams-e Tabriz, who is his chosen and beloved – perchance
I will beguile him with this same pole of the age.
-- Translation by A. J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 2"
The University of Chicago Press, 1991
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Sunlight footnote:
*"pole" –
Arberry (from elsewhere in the "Mystical Poems of Rumi"
collection): "'The Pole': the supreme mystic of his age."
Nicholson: "Qutb, the head of the mystic hierarchy on which
the preservation of the world depends.""Qutb (head of the Sufi
hierarchy)" "the Qutb (supremesaint) of the age" "the Qutb, in
whom the all-comprehendingName of Allah (al-ismu 'l -jami) is
manifested." "Qutbiyyah,the highest degree of saintship."
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