Maḥmūd Shabistarī · d. 720/1320 or c. 740/1339–40
The Rose-Garden of Mystery
گلشن راز
Tap a word for its gloss and its transliteration · about this text
Tap a word for its gloss and its transliteration AI · Contents and notes on the text
3. What am I?
۳ سؤال
Question 3
Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 288–288
ki bāsham man marā az man khabar kun
chi maʿnī dārad andar khvud safar kun
"Who am I? Tell me of myself. What does it mean: 'make a journey in yourself'?"
۳ جواب
Answer 3
Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 289–311
digar kardī suʾāl az man ki man chīst
marā az man khabar kun tā ki man kīst
Next you asked me "what is 'I'?" — "Tell me of myself, that is, who 'I' is."
chu hastī muṭlaq āmad dar ishārat
ba-lafẓ-i man kunand az vay ʿibārat
When absolute being comes into indication, they express it by the word "I".
ḥaqīqat k-az taʿayyun shud muʿayyan
tu ū-rā dar ʿibārat gufta-ʾī man
The Reality, when determined by determination, is what you have called "I" in speech.
Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads گر for کز.
man u tu ʿāriḍ-i dhāt-i vujūd-īm
mushabbak-hā-yi mishkāt-i vujūd-īm
You and I are accidents of the essence of being, the lattices of the niche of being [cf. Q 24:35].
Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads مشکوة for مشکات.
hama yak nūr dān ashbāḥ u arvāḥ
gah az āʾīna paydā gah zi miṣbāḥ
Know bodies and spirits all as one light, now appearing from the mirror, now from the lamp.
tu-gūʾī lafẓ-i man dar har ʿibārat
ba-sū-yi rūḥ mī bāshad ishārat
You say that the word "I", in every expression, is a pointing toward the spirit.
chu kardī pīshvā-yi khvud khirad-rā
na-mī dānī zi-juzv-i khvīsh khvud-rā
Since you have made intellect your leader, you do not know yourself from a part of yourself.
Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads خویش for خود.
bi-raw ay khvāja khvud-rā nīk bi-shnās
ki na-bvad farbihī mānand-i āmās
Go, master, know yourself well, for swelling is not like fatness.
man u tu bartar az jān u tan āmad
ki īn har du zi ajzā-yi man āmad
"I" and "you" are higher than soul and body, for both of these are parts of "I".
ba-lafẓ-i man na insān-ast makhṣūṣ
ki tā-gūʾī ba-dū jān-ast makhṣūṣ
The word "I" is not confined to man, that you should say it is confined to the soul.
Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads بدان for بدو.
yakī rah bartar az kawn u makān shaw
jahān bi-gdhār u khvud dar khvud jahān shaw
Go once beyond being and place; leave the world, and in yourself become a world yourself.
zi khaṭṭ-i vahmī-yi hā-yi huviyyat
du chashmī mī-shavad dar vaqt-i ruʾyat
From the imaginary line of the h of huwiyya ("He-ness"), at the moment of vision there appears a two-eyed [h].
na-mānad dar miyāna rah rav-i rāh
chu hā-yi hū shavad mulḥaq ba-Allāh
The traveller of the road does not remain in between when the h of "He" (hū) is joined to Allāh.
Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads ره رو و for ره رو.
buvad hastī bihisht imkān chu dūzakh
man u tu dar-miyān mānand-i barzakh
Being is paradise, contingency is like hell; you and I in between are like the barzakh (isthmus).
chu bar-khīzad turā īn parda az pīsh
na-mānad nīz ḥukm-i madhhab u kīsh
When this veil is lifted from before you, the rule of creed and religion remains no more.
hama ḥukm-i sharīʿat az man-i tust
ki ān bar-basta-yi jān u tan-i tust
All the rule of the law is from your "I", for that is bound up with your soul and body.
Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads من و for من; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads برشته for آن.
man u tu chūn na-mānad dar-miyāna
chi masjid chi kunisht chi dayr-khāna†
When "I" and "you" remain no longer in between, what is mosque, what is synagogue, what is cloister?
Doubtful reading. As printed, the second hemistich does not scan in the metre. The Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads چه کعبه چه کنشت و دیرخانه (chi kaʿba chi kunisht u dayr-khāna), which scans.
Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads کعبه for مسجد.
taʿayyun nuqṭa-yi vahmī-st dar ʿayn
chi ṣāfī gasht ʿaynat ghayn shud ʿayn†
Determination is an imaginary dot upon the ʿayn (the eye, the essence); when your ʿayn grew clear, the ghayn (the veiling cloud) became ʿayn.
Doubtful reading. As printed, the second hemistich does not scan in the metre. The Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads چو صافی گشت غین تو شود عین (chu … ghayn-i tu shavad ʿayn), which scans.
du khuṭva bīsh na-bvad rāh-i sālik
agar-chi dārad ū chandīn mahālik
The road of the traveller is no more than two steps, though it holds so many perils:
yak az hā-yi huviyyat dar-gudhashtan
duvum ṣaḥrā-yi hastī dar navishtan
one, to pass beyond the h of huwiyya ("He-ness"); the second, to roll up the desert of being.
Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads گذشتن for نوشتن.
dar-īn mashhad yakī shud jamʿ u afrād
chu vāḥid sārī andar ʿayn-i aʿdād
In this place of witnessing the gathering and the single ones became one, like the One running through the very numbers.
tu ān jamʿī ki ʿayn-i vaḥdat āmad
tu ān vāḥid ki ʿayn-i kathrat āmad
You are that gathering which came [to be] the very oneness; you are that One which came [to be] the very multiplicity.
kasī īn sirr shināsad k-ū gudhar kard
zi juzvī sū-yi kullī yak safar kard
He knows this mystery who has passed over, and has made one journey from the partial to the universal.
Persian: Whinfield's edition (London 1880), public domain, transcribed from the archive.org page images. Whinfield's English: 1880, public domain. Transliteration, English and glosses: AI (Claude), marked; † marks a hemistich whose reading does not scan. How this text was established.