O my fast flyer, fly to the land of Absence.
Don’t stay here on this side.
O my thought, my understanding, go to the House of Secrecy,
This is the day of Universal Intelligence.
What does this world have except a drum on the days of feasting?
When the skies are harvested,
this sky offers nothing but a piece of straw.
I wounded your Heart.
Don’t try to put salve on my wound.
I tore your mantle.
Don’t try to grab my mantle.
It is better to look at what I do,
because I am the complete Fountain of Life.
O one who is afraid that I will destroy them,
don’t carry around that kind of feeling about me.
This sea isn’t even a drop on the coast of the Sea of Soul.
Joy isn’t even a grain in my time of sorrow.
Rabbits, pheasant and gazelles are hunted by kings.
Look at the male lions
which are tied onto my stirrups, hanging upside down.
My Beloved is the Beauty of the land,
the One who says, “I created the skies because of you.”
Thanks to that Beloved,
the hearts of lions were turned into blood and the valley was spread with blood.
The One who makes man is a Lover and becomes that lover.
If you’re tired and bored,
come, drink a small glass of God’s wine,
that wine which moves and shakes man
and makes the mountains disappear.
This is the kind of wine
with a light that reflects that sky which is not supported by poles and walls.
If you drink a drop of it, you will understand the exuberance of my Soul.
This wine affects your insides and sharpens your mind.
It enlightens your eyes and your heart,
so that in time, you will see the pearl inside of this flimsy body.
The world is like a chicken sitting on an incubating egg.
The arms and wings of my angels are nourished by this egg.
One day, the chicken goes away because it fears getting kicked.
It leaves the egg alone.
Thanks to the light of my purified egg,
that’s the day when my seven-level sky disappears.
The Bottomless Sea says,
“O old Earth, lift up your skirt. Pick up a pearl from Me.
I am not jealous or protective.”
I am beyond illusion.
The mind fails to understand Me.
The one who can see My peer, My partner,
is confused and seeing double.
My words are like a toothbrush which cleans your teeth
and makes your mouth beautiful.
Even so, you should be silent,
because when you’re in silence, you plunge more deeply
Into the world of ecstasy.
The Divan-i Kebir, Volume 1, ghazal 103, verses 1307-1321, pages 249-251.