Poets From Persia

"There is a difference between him who claspeth his mistress in his arms, and him whose eyes are fixed on the door expecting her."

"In the faculty of speech man excels the brute; but if thou utterest what is improper, the brute is thy superior."

"Every leaf of the tree becomes a page of the sacred scripture once the soul has learnt to read."

"When the belly is empty, the body becomes spirit; when it is full, the spirit becomes body."

"To give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind act is better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer."

"He who is a slave to his stomach seldom worships God."

"Have patience! All things are difficult before they become easy."

"He—in whose nature, is the ugly disposition Sees not the peacock,—only his ugly foot."

"Independence is of more value than any gifts; and to receive gifts is to lose it. — Men most commonly seek to oblige thee only that they may engage thee to serve them."

"The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth."

"The telling of a falsehood is like the cut of a sabre; for though the wound may heal, the scar of it will remain."

"O wise man, wash your hands of that friend who associates with your enemies."

"Capacity without education is deplorable, and education without capacity is thrown away."

"That which is not allotted the hand cannot reach; and what is allotted you will find wherever you may be."

"The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together."

"Let him who neglects to raise the fallen, fear lest, when he falls, no one will stretch out his hand to lift him up."

"Take warning by the misfortunes of others, that others may not take example from you."

"The beloved of the Almighty are the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich."

"In Suna’s town, my child’s life passed away; How can I tell the sadness of that day! As fair as Joseph, God creates a slave; Then, Jonah-like, he’s swallow’d by the grave. In this fair world, scarce grown, the cypress form Uprooted is, by death’s relentless storm. It is not strange the rose on earth should grow, So many rose-like bodies sleep below. Madly I longed to see his form once more, So off the tomb the weighty stone I tore. Fear seized me in that place, so dark and strange: It made me shake, and all my color change. Then came a voice (my child’s) from out the bier: "Dost thou feel terror at this darksome sight? Live, then, with care, and let thy works be bright. If thou dost wish thy grave as light as day, Illume life’s lamp with virtue’s shining ray." Saadi, he eats the fruit who plants the tree; Who sows the seed will fruitful harvests see."

"Not all the year, the vines their clusters keep: Now fruitful are, now leafy tears do weep. Sunlike, the pure are shadowed by a cloud; As sparks on water are the envious crowd: Those, by degrees, their former radiance shed; These are extinguished in a wat’ry bed. Fear not the dark, my friend, howe’er profound: Perchance therein life’s water may be found. Let not despair, though dark, thy soul dismay, For night is pregnant with the glorious day."

"O brothers, Mecca is in front, and robbers in the rear. By proceeding, we escape; and, if we sleep, we die."

"A return of good for good is a slight reciprocity; but the true recompense is to confer benefits on him who has injured thee."

"From earth arise bright colors, scent, and food, To please the eye, the brain, and hunger’s mood. Bees honey give, sweet dew the heavens shed, The dates from palms, and trees from seeds are bred. Gnawing his hand, each gardener shows despair: For who but He can make the world so fair? The sun, the moon, the Pleiades on high,— Thy chandeliers; thy palace roof, the sky! The rose from thorns, and musk from bags He brings; Gold from the mines, a leaf from dry wood springs. His own hand drew thine eye and brow so fair; A friend one cannot leave to other’s care. That mighty One, who hath so cherished thee With blessings varied as the colored sea,— In praising him, our lives we ought to spend: Our tongues can’t count his virtues without end. O God! my heart is blood, sore wounds mine eyes: For, lo! I see thy praise beyond me lies. I say not beasts and ants and flies thee praise, But angel hosts, amazed, their hands upraise! Although by all the world thy praise is rung, Ten thousand thousands yet remain unsung. Saadi, depart! thy pen and paper quit; Take not that road which has no end to it!"

"To pious minds, each verdant leaf displays A volume teeming with the Almighty’s praise."

"He only has drunk the pure wine of unity who has forgotten, by remembering , all else in both worlds."

"Our condition is like the darting lightning, one instant flashing and the next disappearing. Sometimes we are seated above the fourth heaven, and at other times we cannot see the back of our feet."

"Each is bounded by his nature, And remains the same in stature, In the valley, on the mountain: Scoop from ocean or from fountain With a poor hand or a richer, You can only fill your pitcher."

"The wise man never heard a joke But living wisdom from it broke; The fool no wisdom ever learned But it in him to folly turned."

"In an ebullient exchange with the Baghdadi singing-girl ‘Inan he wrote: "Gorgeous one! – God has made your face a qibla for me, /So allow me to pray toward your face, and lets have a kiss." Here "kiss" (qubla) and "the direction of prayer" (qibla) are made to rhyme, an almost inevitable rhyming couplet."

"He played with sacred formulae, such as the call to prayer: "Come to prayer!" is rendered, in one profane turn, "Come to sleep-together!""

"O Lord, even though I have committed many sins I understand that Your forgiveness... is far greater! If only those who’re pure can hope for Your mercy: whom else can one be seeking help, for the sinner? Lord, I’m humbly asking You, like You told me to: who will pity me if of my hand, You’re not a taker? There is no other way I have to You, but the hope that as a Muslim You will be You... the Forgiver!"

"Auspicious stars had risen on this night When drunkard assaulted drunkard We passed the time kowtowing to the Devil, Until the monks sounded the bells at dawn And [a young adolescent] left, dragging delightful robes Which I had stained with my iniquitous behavior, Saying, "O woe!" as tears overcame him, "You have torn away the [dignity] I had preserved." I replied, "A lion saw a gazelle and lunged at it; Such is the variety of Fate’s vicissitudes!""

"Say, then, to whom affects learning in philosophy Knowing one thing doesn’t comprise an education Don’t forbid others what you choose to eschew For prohibition is, in religion, desecration"

"Poured from the palm of a girl dressed as boy An intrigue for one of any orientation She lifts the carafe against the black night Her face lit with brilliant radiation Sending from the jug’s lip a stream so bright That eyes, in its glare, close as in sedation Wine so fine, so pure and delicate To add water would be contamination With light alone may it be mixed Giving off dazzling illumination"

"دَعْ عَنْكَ لَوْمِي فَإنَّ اللَّوْمَ إغْرَاءُ"

"ألا فاسقِني خمراً، وقل لي: هيَ الخمرُ ولا تسقني سرّاً إذا أمكن الجهرُ"

"There are no poems on wine equal to my own, and to my amatory compositions all others must yield."

"The following complaint sets perhaps the smuttiest tone about the poet’s detainment: "al-Amin, I languish in the sodomites' prison and fear being buggered. Do you wish them to bugger your very own poet?""

"It is probably a fallacy to assume, as do some literary histories, that Abu Nuwas composed his ascetic pieces at some point towards the end of his life. Rather, he seems to have composed them throughout his career, stimulated as much by particular events and the varying demands of patronage."

"I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart. He said, "Who are you?" I said, "I am You." You are He Who fills all place But place does not know where You are. In my subsistence is my annihilation; In my annihilation, I remain You."

"This is what is signified by the words Anā l-Ḥaqq, "I am God." People imagine that it is a presumptuous claim, whereas it is really a presumptuous claim to say Ana 'l-'abd, "I am the slave of God"; and Anā l-Ḥaqq, "I am God" is an expression of great humility. The man who says Ana 'l-'abd, "I am the servant of God" affirms two existences, his own and God's, but he that says Anā l-Ḥaqq, "I am God" has made himself non-existent and has given himself up and says "I am God", that is, "I am naught, He is all; there is no being but God's." This is the extreme of humility and self-abasement."

"Ana al-Haqq"

"He says, "There’s nothing left of me. I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise. Is it still a stone, or a world made of redness? It has no resistance to sunlight." This is how Hallaj said, I am God, and told the truth! The ruby and the sunrise are one. Be courageous and discipline yourself. Completely become hearing and ear, and wear this sun-ruby as an earring."

"From Hallaj, I learned to hunt lions, but I became something hungrier than a lion."

"In the Name of Allah the Merciful, the Compassionate, Who manifests Himself through everything, the revelation of a clear knowing to whomsoever He wishes, peace be upon you, my son. This praise belongs to Allah Who manifests Himself on the head of a pin to whom He wishes, so that one testifies that He is not, and another testifies that there is none other than He. But the witnessing in the denying of Him is not rejected, and the witnessing in the affirming of Him is not praised."

"Love is in the pleasure of possession, but in the Love of Allah there is no pleasure of possession, because the stations of the Reality are wonderment, the cancelling of the debt which is owed, and the blinding of vision. The Love of the human being for God is a reverence which penetrates the very depths of his being, and which is not permitted to be given except to Allah alone. The Love of Allah for the human being is that He Himself gives proof of Himself, not revealing Himself to anything that is not He."

"God, Most High, is the very one who Himself affirms His unity by the tongue of whatever of His creatures He wishes. If He Himself affirms His unity by my tongue, it is He and His affair. Otherwise, brother, I have nothing to do with affirming God's Unity."

"The beloved does not drink a single drop of water without seeing His Face in the cup. Allah is He Who flows between the pericardium and the heart, just as the tears flow from the eyelids."

"He acts without contact, instructs without meeting, guides without pointing. Desires do not conflict with Him, thoughts do not mingle with Him: His essence is without qualification (takyeef), His action without effort (takleef)."

"Other than He cannot be qualified by two (opposite) qualities at one time; yet With Him they do not create opposition. He is hidden in His manifestation, manifest in His concealing."