Another great translation from Prof. Nicholas Boylston…
Translation:
At every breath the song of love
Arrives to us from left and right
We’re setting out to the celestial sphere
Who has the guts to come with us?
The celestial sphere was once our home
We were the friends of angels there
We go again to that same place
O Master, for that is our home
Yet we are higher than the celestial sphere
And more than even angels are
Why should we not pass by them both?
For Majesty is our abode
How great a distance separates
This world of dust from Kawthar’s pool
Although we have come down to here
We fly again. What place is this?
Youthful fortune is our friend
To give our lives our only task
The leader of our caravan
Is this world’s glory, Mustafa
The breeze’s fragrance comes to us
From the curls of his beloved hair
Imagination shimmering
From his face like ‘By the morning bright’
The moon was split by his fair face
Not bearing to set eyes on him
Even the moon achieved this fate
A humble beggar though she is
Now take a look within our heart
At every breath the moon is split
In view now of that that very view
How can your eyes now turn away?
The wave of ‘Am I not [your Lord]’
Has come and smashed the body’s boat
But since the boat is wrecked the turn
Has come of to meet Him once again
We people are like water-fowl
We were born upon the Spirit’s sea
How could it make this place its home
A bird that rose up from that sea?
Nay, we must be in that sea,
All of us are present there
Otherwise from the Spirit’s sea
Why do the waves crash one by one?
The Union of the Encounter
Has come, when beauty shall abide
The time of gifts and kindnesses
A sea that’s pure as purity
The wave of gifts has come to view,
The sea’s roaring now reaches us
Felicity’s dawn has breathed again,
Not dawn. It is the Light of God.
Who is this form that that gives all form?
Who is this king, this lord [this love]?
Who is this ancient intellect?
Why all these veils upon his face?
The remedy of all these veils of face
Is nothing but this ferment here
The fountain of these blessed draughts
Is here within your head and eyes
Your head itself, there’s nothing there
For in fact you have two heads:
One head of dust that’s from this earth
One head that’s from the celestial realm
O how many a pure head there is
That has been cast beneath the dust
So you may know this head right here
Is by that head now kept aloft
Hidden, the head that is the root
The head that’s branch is visible
For once this world is finished up
There is the world that has no end
Take up your flask, O cupbearer
And take your wine now from our cask
For the jug of thought and perception
Is narrower than a narrow way
The Sun of the Truth from Tabriz
Shone out, and thus I said to him,
‘Your light with everything is one,
And yet apart from everything.’
Original:
هر نفس آواز عشق می‌رسد از چپ و راست
ما به فلک می‌رویم عزم تماشا که راست
ما به فلک بوده‌ایم یار ملک بوده‌ایم
باز همان جا رویم جمله که آن شهر ماست
خود ز فلک برتریم وز ملک افزونتریم
زین دو چرا نگذریم منزل ما کبریاست
گوهر پاک از کجا عالم خاک از کجا
بر چه فرود آمدیت بار کنید این چه جاست
بخت جوان یار ما دادن جان کار ما
قافله سالار ما فخر جهان مصطفاست
از مه او مه شکافت دیدن او برنتافت
ماه چنان بخت یافت او که کمینه گداست
بوی خوش این نسیم از شکن زلف اوست
شعشعه این خیال زان رخ چون والضحاست
در دل ما درنگر هر دم شق قمر
کز نظر آن نظر چشم تو آن سو چراست
خلق چو مرغابیان زاده ز دریای جان
کی کند این جا مقام مرغ کز آن بحر خاست
بلک به دریا دریم جمله در او حاضریم
ور نه ز دریای دل موج پیاپی چراست
آمد موج الست کشتی قالب ببست
باز چو کشتی شکست نوبت وصل و لقاست