The Rose-Garden of Mystery

سؤال ۱۳

Question 13

What does the man of meaning want from that expression which points to eye and lip?

What does one who is in the stations and the states seek in cheek and curl, down and mole?

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads سر for رخ و.

جواب ۱۳

Answer 13

Everything that is visible in the world is like a reflection from the sun of that world.

The world is like curl and down and mole and eyebrow, for every thing is fair in its own place.

Self-disclosure is now beauty (jamāl), now majesty (jalāl); cheek and curl are the likeness of those meanings.

The attributes of the Real, exalted is He, are kindness and wrath; the cheek and curl of idols (beauties) have their share of those two.

Since these spoken words are things of sense, they are [held to have been] laid down first for things of sense.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads مخصوصست for محسوسند.

The world of meaning has no end: how can word and limit see it?

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads مرادا for مراورا.

Whatever meaning has appeared to tasting, how can verbal expression find it?

When the people of heart interpret meaning, they express the meaning by likeness.

For the sensibles are like a shadow of that world: this one is like an infant, and that like a nurse.

In my view the words [people] interpret figuratively fell upon that [inner] meaning by their first institution.

[Their use] for particular sensibles comes from common usage; how do the common people know what that meaning is?

When [the knowers] looked into the world of intellect, from there they carried the words across.

The intelligent one kept to correspondence when he came down toward word and meaning.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads گردد for کرد.

But a complete likeness is not possible: keep still from searching for it.

In this matter no one has an objection against you, for the master of doctrine here is none but the Real.

But as long as you are with self, beware, beware: keep to the expressions of the law (sharīʿat).

For the licence of the people of heart lies in three states: passing away (fanāʾ), intoxication, and then, the other, the lover's boldness (dalāl).

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads شکر سه for سکر و پس.

Since you do not have the states of ecstasy (mavājīd), do not become an unbeliever through ignorance and imitation.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads گر for چون; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads افعال for احوال.

Whoever knows these three states knows the institution [of words], the words and their signification.

The states of reality (ḥaqīqat) are not metaphorical; not everyone finds the secrets of reality.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads طریقت for حقیقت.

Idle talk, friend, does not come from the people of verification: this needs unveiling (kashf), or else assent.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads نه for که.

I have told you, sealed up, the institution of words and meanings: if you have [it], you will understand.

In the meanings, look toward the end [they point to]; observe the concomitants one by one.

Liken in one particular respect, and in the other respects declare [Him] free (tanzīh).

Since this rule is now wholly established, I will show some further examples of it.

اشارت بچشم و لب

Indication: the eye and the lip

See what appears from the eye of the beautiful one (shāhid); observe the concomitants there.

Whinfield's margin. Other manuscripts reads وازلت for شاهد.

From His eye arose sickness and drunkenness; from His ruby [lip] appeared very being.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads خاست for خواست; other manuscripts reads نیستی درتحت مستی (printed on two lines: «نیستی درتحت» / «MSS. مستی») for گشت.

Through His eye all hearts are eating their livers [in grief]; His ruby lip is the healing of the sick soul.

It is from His eye that hearts are drunk and crapulous; it is from His ruby that souls are all veiled.

Though the world does not come into His eye, His lip shows a kindness every hour.

One moment He cherishes hearts in kindness; another moment He finds a remedy for the helpless.

Playfully He gives soul to water and earth; by breathing He sets fire to the heavens.

From Him each glance became a snare and a grain [for bait]; from Him each corner became a wine-house.

With a glance He gives being over to plunder; with a kiss He builds it up again.

From His eye our blood is forever in turmoil; from His ruby our soul is forever unconscious.

With a glance His eye steals the heart; with coquetry His ruby steals the soul.

When you seek an embrace from His eye and lip, this one says "No", and that one says "Yes".

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads جوی for خواهی.

With a glance He makes an end of a whole world; with a kiss, every moment, He caresses the soul [back to life].

From Him one glance, and from us the giving up of the soul; from Him one kiss, and from us the rising up again.

"As the twinkling of the eye" [Q 54:50] came the gathering (resurrection) of the world; from the breathing of the spirit [Q 15:29] Adam appeared.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads زلمح for کلمح; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads نفخ صور for نفخ روح.

When they thought on His eye and lip, a whole world took up wine-worship as its trade.

All being does not come into His two eyes: how then, after all, could the sleep of drunkenness come into them?

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads بچشمش در نیاید for نیاید در دو چشمش.

Our being is all drunkenness or sleep: what relation has dust with the Lord of lords?

Intellect is in a hundred kinds of turmoil (?) over this: why did He say "that you might be formed under My eye" [Q 20:39]?

Doubtful reading. Printed اشفت; Whinfield's margin gives Hammer-Purgstall's اشکفت, and the Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads اشگفت, "wonder": the print has lost a letter.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads اشکفت for اشفت.

اشارت بزلف

Indication: the curl

The tale of the beloved's curl is very long: what can be said of it, for it is a place of mystery?

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits ان; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads روز for رازست.

Do not ask me the tale of the twisting curl: do not shake (?) the chain of the madmen.

Doubtful reading. Whinfield prints محبا هند and marks it [?]; the Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads مجنبانید, "do not shake" (the chain of the madmen), followed in the English.

Whinfield's margin. Other manuscripts reads بجنبانید for محبا هند; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads ? مجنایند for محبا هند.

Last night I spoke a word of straightness about His stature; the tip of His curl said to me, "Silence!"

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads فرو پوش for که خاموش.

Because of that, crookedness prevailed over straightness, and through it the seeker's road came into twisting.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads پیش for پیچش.

All hearts have been chained by it; all souls have been thrown into turmoil by it.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads بوده for گشته; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads مقلقل for مغلغل.

A hundred thousand hearts hang from it on every side; not one heart has got out of its ring.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads خلقه for از.

If He shakes out His two musky curls, not one unbeliever will remain in the world.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads اگر زلفین خودرا for گر او زلفین.

And if He leaves them forever at rest, not one believing soul will remain in the world.

Since its coil was becoming a snare of temptation, He playfully cut its head from its body.

And if His curl was cut, what grief was that? For if the night grew less, the day increased.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads نه for که.

Since it waylaid the caravan of intellect, He tied a knot in it with His own hand.

His curl does not find rest for a moment: now it brings on the dawn, now it makes the evening.

With His face and curl He made a hundred days and nights, and played many a wondrous game.

Adam's clay was kneaded at that moment, and so it has the scent of that perfumed curl.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads دادش for دارد; the Midnapore MS reads معنبر for معطر.

Our heart has a token of His curl, for it is never still for a moment.

Every moment, through it, I began my work anew; I gave up [all claim to] my own soul.

The heart is troubled by His curl because it has a heart [set] on fire by His face.

اشارت برخ و خط

Indication: the cheek and the down

Here the cheek is the place of manifestation of the divine beauty; by the down is meant the presence of [divine] grandeur.

His cheek drew a line (khaṭṭ) through beauty, [saying]: 'No fair face lies outside of us.'

The down is the green meadow of the world of the soul; therefore they named it the Water of Life.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads دار for آب.

By the darkness of His curl, turn your day to night; by His down, seek the spring of life.

Like Khiḍr, from the station of tracelessness, drink, as His down does, the water of life.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads بخود for بخور; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads خضر for خطش.

If you see His face and down, without doubt you will know multiplicity from unity, one by one.

From His curl you will learn the working of the world; from His down you will read the hidden secret.

If someone saw His down on the fair face, my heart saw His face in His down.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads کو for گر.

Perhaps His cheek is "the seven oft-repeated" [Q 15:87], since every letter of it is a sea of meanings.

Hidden beneath every hair of it, again, are thousands of seas of knowledge from the world of mystery.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) inserts عالم; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits عالم.

See the Throne of the Merciful upon the water of the heart [cf. Q 11:7] in the down on the beloved's lovely cheek.

اشارت بخال

Indication: the mole

On that cheek the point of His mole is simple (uncompounded), for it is the root of the centre of the encompassing circle.

From it came the line of the circle of both worlds; from it came the line of the form of Adam's heart.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits هر.

Hence the state of the blood-filled heart is ruined, for it is the reflection of the point of the black mole.

Like His mole (khāl), the heart's state (ḥāl) is nothing but turning to blood, for from that station there is no way out.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads ز for چو.

In unity there is no multiplicity whatever; there are not two points in the root of unity.

I do not know whether His mole is the reflection of our heart, or the heart the reflection of the mole on the lovely face.

Did the heart appear from the reflection of His mole, or did the reflection of the heart become manifest there?

Is the heart in His face, or is He in the heart? This hard mystery has stayed hidden from me.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads روی for اوست; the Midnapore MS reads شد for گشت.

If this heart of ours is the reflection of that mole, why then is it of changing state?

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits ما.

Now, like His languid eye, it is ruined; now, like His curl, it is in agitation.

Now it is bright like that moon-like face; now dark like the black mole.

Now it is a mosque, now a synagogue (kunisht); now it is hell, now paradise.

Now it rises higher than the seventh of the spheres; now it falls beneath the heap of earth.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads دوده for تودهٔ.

After asceticism and scruple it becomes once more a seeker of wine, candle and the beautiful one.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits this couplet.