The holy songbird, separate from the Friend,
burns up both skin and marrow with laments 
Should it heave a sigh in separation's throes
it would inflame the souls of the elect
 
(The elect alone enjoy a share of this –
so from such bounteous grace take warmth, my friend!)

Waft from the soul Your scent of musk divine
that these degenerates may catch sweet hints 
This is the spring of endless spirit
- not a spring soon chased away by autumn
 
In this holy springtide, spirit blossoms
in its atmosphere, the light of Noah shines
 
It boards the passengers into the Ark
and grants each one of them untold dominion
 
Beauty of God! Emerge from out the veil,
so that the sun may rise up in the west! 
 
Unseal the musk of God's own privileged knowledge
Open treasure chests of mysteries unseen –
 
so that the dead discern Your scent of musk
so that Your wine will stir the numb to mirth
 
Through kind largesse, clothe in Your robe of Might 
this Meek one of the earth of unity
 
This fleeting one – outfit in garb immortal
This abject wretch – give taste of honied riches
 
That He might step out fully from the curtain
and rend contingent being's veil to shreds,

intoxicated and impelled, emerge,
like a candle in the glass of "they return" 
 

It was in Your garden that this thistle grew,
so make through it a thousand gardens bloom 
Upon each garden, then, inscribe a name
and write the ancient secrets on each leaf
 
that Your face may beam with rays resplendent
and fill the earth and heavens with Your light
 
Waft over them with mercy's generous breeze;
Tear from this afflicted one all heedless veils
 
Grant, bright-miened Sovereign, to the spirits pure
the sheltering shade of Your Divine Lote tree
 
Unlock for them a Gate [45] to Ridván's meaning
For God's sake! do not bar this Gate to them
 
that I may step unveiled into the world,
expound upon one of Your righteous signs

He said: By God, by God, my righteous man,
don't tell the ignorant the signs of Truth! 
God, God! O Tongue of God! Tell this secret
soft and slow, have patience with the people;
 
perchance Your grace may take them by the hand
and free them from all fear of this and that
 

Stretch the wings of meaning, fly aloft,
soar through the spheres of nearness unto Him, 
near Him in spirit, not by taking steps
Strive with soul and enter realms eternal
 
To thus traverse the heavens in a flash
is easy if you bow your head in prayer
 
In Exposition of this let me speak –
that from the Fount of Life you quaff your share
 
and reach the Riván of eternity
and find your way to where you meet with God
 
and fathom what is meant by "Cross the earth" 
and soar like spirit through His atmosphere -
 
Since at this moment you're enmeshed in clay,
How can you sense the scent of heart's Ridván?
 
Strip yourself of all restriction's garments
and sanctify your soul from limitation

Illumine your heart's darkness with His light
Make yourself in spirit's realm the leader
 
Your darkness once dispelled, His light arises;
His Sinai's rays will sparkle on your heart
 
Once night comes to an end, the morning dawns
Majestic breezes of the spirit blow
 
You are, and your corrupted soul, that darkness 
God's self-revelation, your Water of Life

Just pass beyond the darkness of your self;
you'll quaff, always refreshed, the wine of life
 
Then step into the shade of Soul's own Khezr 
that from the realms of darkness you'll be freed
 
The Khezr of old drank deep, was freed from death
while this new Khezr grants countless founts of life
 
To all He has bestowed the water of life
To the sole King, he's sacrificed his soul!
 
That Khezr through striving finally arrived;
This Khezr at once made fountains flow with life
 
That Khezr ran after traces of the fount
This Khezr is chased each step by flowing founts
 

Return, O spirit's Glory,[118] from this trek,
and so hunt down a million meanings more! 115
Don't hunt the vagrant beasts, leave them to their graves!
Capture mystic meaning's prize on Sinai's plain
 
You hunted lovers' souls down on the plains
till all souls passed beyond the plane of Being.
 
You have no chance to tell the nightingale,
O King of All, of secrets of the Rose 
 
Let a bird fly from the falconer's forearm
and bring back mysteries from the farther realms
 
And now hunt for the mystic bird of meaning;
Open a treasure with the key of "Be" 
 
The promise that you made, fulfill it now,
you whose light has brightened earth and heaven!

Deck the world with Your spring's vernal verdure;
make Eden envious of Your own Ridván
 
Of Truth, make blossom fields of wind-flowers
within this atmosphere of soul's springtide
 
So make each rose a nightingale's sign
To all the kings explain the heart's rosé 
 
For at this moment there are strangers here
(though stranger here and confidant are one) 

O morning breeze, from tresses of the Friend
bring fragrances of spiritual musk 
O clouds of spiritual bounty, rain
so that the shells may all engender pearls

The mysteries divine: deciphered, shown!
The meaning "cross the earth" is mentioned, told! 

Then, you who're drunk on chalices of pride,
exchange your fiery selfish souls for light,
 
and cross the span of earth with just one breath
to win release from confines of your cage
 
Till you enter in the shelter of the Friend,
you've no conception of what's pith, what's husk
 
Your legs of meaning stand quagmired in mud,
ignorant of His fair and radiant face 
 
Once harbored in the King of soul's soft shadow
it's time to uproot heart from worldly earth
 
For a while at first in dust you wallowed
but in the end you pass beyond the sun

See how, sojourner, you crossed spirit's worlds
in an instant without lifting up a foot!
 

Now fragrance from sweet meadows of the soul
wafts by, perfuming us and earth in scent 
Again that bounteous Riván's soulful musk
wafts by, and blows away all things that were
 
Of "heed" and "heedlessness" we here lose hold
Both drunk and sober have been carried off 
Sobriety erased, effacement fades
The drunk finds wits, no sober one remains
 
Whatever names and ways the world once had
have been proved fleeting since my King appeared

For Names, though striving towards Him for an age,
could never comprehend His smallest station
 
All that your eye and ear have seen and heard,
sure guide, above all that, He's holier.
 
Then how with ear and eye of insight void
perceive the inner mystery of the Beloved?
 
Open your eye anew to the new Friend 
Clear your inner ear, then listen!
 
Ignorant eyes see nothing but the dust,
Gnostic eyes see primordial secrets

Gnostic eyes see down the road a million years –
Ignorant eyes can't see the King's own face! 
 

Once someone posed this question to a gnostic:
O you, who've grasped the mysteries of God 
O you, by bounty's wine intoxicate,
do you recall the day of "Am I not?"
 
He said: I do recall that sound, those words, 
as if it were but yesterday, no less! 
 
It lingers ever in my ears, His call,

that sweet, soul-vivifying voice of His. 
 

Another gnostic, who had climbed beyond, ]
had bored the mystic pearls divine, replied: 
That day of God has never ended nor
has fallen short, we're living in that day! 
 
His day's unending, not pursued by night –
That we're alive on such a day's not strange
 
Had Time's Soul ceased its yearning for this day,
then Heaven's court and throne would fall to dust
 
For through God's power this eternal day
was made unending by His Majesty.
 

Then you, my dear, please heed this paradox
and mind the counsels of God's mysteries, 
that you may find soul's nurture in His wisdom,
your life be for His face a sacrifice
 
that you may always hear His melodies
and deeply drain the chalice of His grace
 
that you may comprehend love's mysteries,
quaff Love's rejuvenating streams of wine 
 

I'll never flinch from riff-raffs' brandished swords
though infidels may slay me over and over
 
From the start my soul drank deep Your vintage
At last I'll give my life to Your remembrance
 
O Bahá! Kindle once again the fire,
burn up earth's learning and investigation
 
and clean its soul of worldly qualities;
unlock one symbol of the hidden mysteries,
 
cast a wave up from the depths of mystic seas
and crack the Ark of superficiality
 
Pour out a glass that frees me from myself,
that I, like champions,[139] may slash through veils.
 
You, through whose name the Tree of Life bears fruit,
whose hand wields manifest the powers of Truth,
 
A world entire in Your palm's destiny
tumultuous now, grows tranquil by Your plan
 
Light up, bright King, this candle and through it,
illuminate the various directions.
 
This lantern flame which You've illumined
and protected in protection's glass,
 
with magnanimity's oil You've succoured it
and tapered it with wicks of God's Command -
 
Protect it, then, from all oppression's winds
that Your irradiant light may shine through it
 
Make hands of enemies fall short of it,
Orb of command! Of "We, in truth," the King! 

Look at your candle, how it's buffeted
by calamitous contrary winds!
 
It's through Your beauty's rays it gets its light
let no contingency, then, snuff it out
 
Since You have kindled it, then quench it not
Since You have made it quick, extinguish not
 
You whose kindness makes a mote into a sun,
whose wrath reduces lions into sparrows,
 
Your candle, O Creator, stands exposed
by harsh winds buffeted from every side
 
If You wish, even water turns to fire
but if You don't, the fire itself turns cold
 
Through Your wisdom, demons turn to angels
Through Your command, hell's fire turns into light
 
Should You wish, the winds will work like oil,
will make the spirits blaze and give off light 
 

O Bahá'u'lláh, how fierce Your fire!
it burns the lovers' beings all to stubble 
You struck the hearts with one spark from the flame
and set afire whole forests on Sinai
 
So, from each heart You've conjured burning bushes: 
O Moses, here it is! come running fast,
 
behold the meaning of the fire of God
and free yourselves from grip of the Egyptians!

O Sacrifice of God, do not forsake
love's altar; give your life in paths of love!
 
Come soul-shorn and headlorn to the Friend's lane,
thus worthy of the folk whose realm this is.
 

Spirit of God! Step in the vale of love
walk the road, blaze a trail, the Cross in tow 
 

Above the skies and physical ascent
climb, King of soul and body's Jubilation!
 
You're spirit's nightingale on spirit's rose
Won't you please, O Host of spirit, return?
 
Your home, Spirit-Falcon: the King's forearm –
so aim directly for your home right here!

You, likewise, Noah, break the body's Ark
and hurl yourself into the Sea of Light!
 
Don't seek self-preservation; Drown this self!
then you'll come up for air in God's embrace 
 
Seek out the King's protection, not the ship's
– the King's preserve will then provide refuge
 

You, too, hasten Moses, come to Soul's Sinai!
Forget your cloak and sandals, rush unrobed! 
 
that you may know the mysteries of that Fire
which flames from each lock of the Loved One's hair
 
His locks a fire that burn the soul of love –
both faith and unbelief and love's set ways -
 
His locks a fire that dance on Mount Párán 
The back of Time's bent by His curly strands
 

O Dove, leave now the tale of Fire's mysteries
Don't bring the pearls of Soul before the blind – 
This Staff – the Hand of Truth wields as a sword
and cuts contingent outward forms to shreds
 
All other staffs[ are hewn from orchard tree
but this Staff's brought to be through Truth's command
 
Those staffs in stuff like clay and water grow;
Behold this Staff, composed of hot heart's fire!
 
This Staff is a consuming fire whose flame
burns through the veils of falsehood, counterfeit

This Staff's the wind that smote the folk of Hud 
first sifting faithful out from infidel
 
This Staff became an ark in Noah's age
and then in Jesus' time to spirit changed
 
O Moses, you must rush to Soul's Sinai –
Your fire roars with animated flames
 
Forget the sandals! fly through spirit's realm
like wind, and leave belief and soul behind

(O Bird-soul, fly beyond ephemeral space
to feast eternal with cherubs rosy-cheeked) 
 
The fire of Moses flares in His Lote tree
His breaths respire with hosts of Christ-like spirits
 

That Moses saw the fire on Sinai glow
This Moses saw his soul ablaze with fire

(Upon the Mount of Soul full many creeds 
are manifest like branches lade with fruit)

God's Mount, His breast; the Friend's bright flame, His fire
Snow-white, His hand; and Sinai is His heart
 
(Not with the whiteness His command created,
but whiteness that itself creates Command!)
 
Now, in this age, Love's Mount Párán  appears
as our Friend rends the veil from off His face

The scent of soul now permeates the air
but I know not from where this fragrance comes
 
I do know, though, the tresses of the Friend
draw souls forth with their scent to sacrifice
 
The musk of God has been released, unsealed –
His memory brought our souls to share a secret
 
Blow, breeze of spiritual morning, soft –
Blow, sacred zephyr of the Merciful
 
Intoxicate the souls with your aroma
bear them up past being's world to "Am I not" 
 

The Immortal Phoenix from the Mount of Faith 
has winged its way into the infinite 

and crossed at single stroke the world's horizons
through confirmations from the Spirit-King
 
Now from the Friend's Throne once again it comes
and infinite the melodies it sings
 
His rosy face makes dead of winter spring
His lips of ruby make the night daybright
 
His tresses make the lovers suffer long
His absence brings beloveds abject need
 
His hair lassoes brave champions by the neck
The head of God's hosts wounded by His shafts
 
His lips rob every lover's soul of wit
the souls of kings for union with Him yearn
 
The eye of inner soul – look well, you'll see –
was made to light up by His beauty
 
Had it not been for His eye, the founts of light
would not have sprung or flowed throughout the world
 
His rose brings ample gardens into blossom
His cheeks abloom with inner meaning's roses

Where He dwells, Moses' fire seeks its light
In His face, the soul of Christ seeks spirit
 
From behind the veil should He but step one night,
He'll light a hundred worlds up like the sun
 
What's night, if not the dark tress of that beauty?
What's morn, if not the light of that Friend's face?

Each and every monarch in Love's city
has scattered for the sake of love his soul

God's beauty in His beauty stands revealed
and from His lips the hearts quaff soulful wine
 
All the world's entangled in His hair
their wounded chests all heave in pain for Him

When the Zulaykhá of Beauty saw that face
in the place of her hand, she cut her heart

He blew with just one breath of His own spirit
and brought a million Christ-like spirits to life
 

But this does not describe Him – just His light,
from which you, who're made of attributes, draw life 
But find a way His beauty to describe,
and you will cross a thousand seas of meaning
 
One ray, devout one, being thus described,
imagine the description of Himself!
 
When the lover's eye espied His beauty,
it cut all heart-ties to this world and beyond
 
The wave of love's seas surges with His wave
Love's phoenix finds its zenith in His heights
 
Your eye receives its light from His, and so
to turn to any other's a dark deed

Since the soul's eye takes its light from Him,
what shame were it to light upon another!
 
Your eye came into sight from Truth's own eye
to see naught but His beauty in the world
 
(I tell this mystery sotto voce, friend;
I bore this pearl in secret, kind companion!
 
that the evil eye may never touch Him
that the stranger may not find the way to Him)
 

Perceive this in your limbs and members, all;
Cast off the fetters of the folk of darkness

For your ear has heard His mystic melodies,
and hearkened to His music's soulful secrets 
 
Now that the handiwork divine's revealed,
turn your eyes to it and from all worldly folk
 
Look to the world with His eye, if you can 
a thousand realms of meaning you will see
 
His eye perceives no thing except God's face
His bird takes perch nowhere except His lane
 
With Him united, lovers' souls burn up;
their hearts, in separation, blaze with flame
 
So both in separation and reunion
the life-lorn, soul-shorn lover burns, my son! 
 
Then know that love of Truth is your companion
that you may soar away from worldly trappings
 
Love means a letting go of mortal life
to claim with heart and soul eternity
 
Seek to hear the secret meaning, if you can, 
that you may make divine ascent to God, 

that spirit's harvest grow upon your palm tree,
and give forth luminous and sacred fruits
 

O Breeze, bring us fragrance from His tresses
Clouds, sprinkle on us showers of His grace 
that the meadows of His lovers' souls
may bring forth Love's most beauteous tulips
 
The throne of God is but the lover's heart 
which has been purified of all but Him

Once His House, through love of such a heart, was raised 
Both House and Him within the House were hid 

Know this, O youth! His House resides in hearts
and was not raised upon mere stone and clay 
 
And when His light has bathed and cleansed your heart
your heart becomes His seat – it's His Sinai!

God's House, a Lover now from head to toe,
shines ever effulgent with the Beloved
 

When Love returns, the veil of reason burns; 
of virtue, knowledge, gnosis, harvests burn
 
Since none but Him is in the House, my son,
from wall to wall know all is His command
 
Know, then, your eye and ear and hand from Him
and He will see for you and take your hand
 
The gnostic soul, His highest temple,  and
the mystic treasures of His close approach 

And now a new way must be found, my son –
this counsel you must heed with all your soul –
 
So rise beyond reunion/separation 
until you reach the precincts of the Source 
 
Separated, you're as sure as in the fire;
reunited with Him, you are febrile, ill

Enter the pure and everlasting realm,
the plane where all but Him do fade away 
 
If you have read the Hadíth "There was God" ]
then you know secrets of "There's naught but Him" 
 
Walk this path with striving feet to free yourself
from either care: the Friend's absence or union

When you sense for sure the spirit's mystery –
that there is nothing anywhere but God 
275
then wash away in spirit's stream the mire
that you may see the Pure One's emanations
 
that you may see reunion in reunion
that you may see your heart with Beauty shine
 
Such union never will be contradicted
such union never ends in separation
 
If you've an ear for fatherly advice,
both are blasphemy: reunion, absence!
 

Fly, regal bird, from either consequence 
into His, the Sovereign's, sphere of Unity 
But I fear your feet will lose their footing,
that evil suppositions cloud your mind
 
I must explain the meaning for you,
uproot satanic whisperings from your heart
 
free you from games, evil, hauteur, unrest
lest this exposition tempt you into pride
 
Know this: His emanations are reunion
which shine within you endless, unconditioned
 
Within you He has placed His light, in trust; 
Strive hard to make it become manifest!
 
Then in yourself, my sweet, seek union with Him
and you'll no longer feel the Friend's absence

You are yourself the storehouse of God's treasure,
yet heedless, you chase after this and that 
 
Until His attributes appear in you,
know yourself as lost, in separation
 
His bounty has not left you portionless
of His names and ways and qualities, o sage!

Through His grace, He's opened gates unto you
do not, like ingrates, close those opened gates 
 

***

Since you have heard the reed pipe's plaint of love, 
recognize it now renewed this day through love

You've heard the reed pipe sing, now look Who plays it
(or you'll stay wholly heedless of the King!)

The Piper felt a stranger to the world
and so He donned the reed pipe as His veil

Tear off the veil then from your face, at last
and show alone the Piper to the world
 
Slice the veils to pieces like a champion 
to show God, the Giver's, effulgence revealed
 
Cry out pipe-like in your separation
until the Piper makes new pact with you

At the clarion call of spirit's Piper
all simmering lovers' breasts begin to boil
 
With this reed pipe's sighs light conflagrations
to purge the world of egotism's trace
 
When all the scum burns off the creed of Self
pure reed alone remains within the world 
 
Your eye, lit with His light – O you who know! –
at last can see, perceives alone the Piper
 
So listen to the mysteries of the Piper,
that you inhale these roses' sweet fragrance!
 
A single spark of His love's fire caught hold
and scorched the royal harvest of existence
 
When Beauty drew the curtain from His face
it tore away each sovereign's veils of glory
 
As if eyelashes were arrows, that Darling
cast His glance, pierced breastbones in the monarch's soul
 
swift struck the regal crown from off his head
enslaving him, reducing him to fetters 
 
Like prey he fell into the hunter's hands
Like straw, snatched up by wind, thrown down to dust 
 

Will no messenger be heading to Iraq,
to tell of parting's pain, separation's tale? 
Wrenched from you, fervent pining souls are scorched
Separation's arrows pierce the hearts of kings
 
Between you and I, city of spirit,
a million mythic mountains intervene
 
No messenger have I but fire-hot sighs
Unless the zephyr's breeze can spread the news
 
My hand cannot attain the date-palm's fruit
My soul's eyes weep deep seas in separation

O Zephyr, fly off now from the Beloved
waft sweetly to the exiles of Baghdad 
 
and ask:

City of the Lord!
How sit still,
now that the Friend's departed from your side?
 
Your lover languishes away in prison, 
suffering like Husayn on plains of Karbalâ: 

One Husayn,
untold Yazîds have hemmed him in!
One Friend,
and hostile demons all around, 
 
Like Moses
held among the folk of Egypt,
or God's Spirit
detained among the Jews, 
 
or cast like Joseph
deep into the well –
that endless pit from which there's no way out.
 
Your nightingale's afflicted in a cage! 
Bars keep him in, almost choking out His breath...