Notes

Poem I

1. [Persian phrase omitted]—Love, implying loss of selfhood and by that means perfect union with the divine Beloved, is the living rock on which all mysticism is based.

2. [Persian word omitted]—the Ṣūfī path ([Persian term omitted]) whereby the pilgrim arrives at true knowledge of God.

[Persian word omitted]—Greek νόμος (see Dozy’s Supplément aux Dictionnaires Arabes, under [Arabic word omitted]).

[Arabic word omitted]—I have not been able to discover any tradition to this effect. Possibly the word is used here, as often, in a non-technical sense.

[Persian word omitted]—sincerely, without prejudice.

3. [Persian word omitted]—literally, possessed by the [Arabic word omitted]. Majnūn is the Orlando Furioso of eastern romance; in Persia the love of Majnūn and Lailā has long been a brilliant theme for poetry: mention may be made here of the mas̤navīs by Niz̤āmī, Jāmī, and Hātifī. Majnūn represents the soul seeking union with God, who is the Beloved par excellence.

[Persian word omitted]—Orientals regard lunacy as a special mark of divine favour.

Observe the assonance [Persian words omitted]. This figure, in which two or more words of like sound and derived (or at least apparently derived) from the same root are brought together, is called [Persian term omitted], according to others [Persian term omitted].

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—suffered the agony of separation from his Beloved. Cf. Ḥāfiẓ (I. 256. 2): [Persian phrase omitted].

[Persian word omitted]—self-annihilation ‘which is attained by absorption in the glory of the Creator and by contemplation of the Truth’ (Kitābu’tta‘rīfāt), ‘to die spiritually, so far as the senses are concerned, during life’ (Juan de la Cruz). See Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. xvi seq., with the passages there referred to, De Sacy’s Pendnāmeh, p. liv, Gulshani Rāz, 334 seq., with Lāhījī’s commentary, and cf. also Kor. II. 88: Desire death if ye are sincere, and the ḥadīs̤: Die before ye die.

5. [Persian word omitted]—This may allude to an incident in the Prophet’s flight from Mecca, when a spider spun its web across the mouth of a cavern where he had taken refuge, and thus caused his enemies to abandon their pursuit.

[Arabic phrase omitted]—these words do not occur in the Kor’ān, but were probably suggested by Pharaoh’s boast: (Kor. LXXIX. 24). One of the Bāb’s titles was [Persian phrase omitted] (Browne’s Episode of the Bāb, Vol. II. p. 229).

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—what is earthly beauty compared with immediate vision of God?

[Arabic phrase omitted]—Kor. XVII. 1. A full description and mystical interpretation of Mohammed’s night-journey to heaven is quoted from Abū ‘Alī Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) in the Dabistān, Vol. III. p. 177 seq. The second foot in this line is – – – instead of ⏑ ⏑ – – and as a general rule, for two short syllables occurring together, even if they do not belong to the same foot, one long syllable may be substituted. Cf. note on XI. 10.

7. [Arabic word omitted]—Arabic broken plural of [Arabic word omitted], which is the name usually given to a collection of short poems, e.g. ghazals and qaṣīdas. As it seems unlikely that Waisa and Rāmīn formed the subject of any such collection, the term must be extended to include the mas̤navīs bearing this title by Niz̤āmī ‘Arūẓī of Samarcand and Fakhru’ddīn Jurjānī, both of whom flourished under the Seljūqs. The former was a pupil of Mu‘izzī and one of the poets at Sulṭān Sanjar’s court (479–552 A.H.).

[Persian name omitted] (lover) and [Persian name omitted] (virgin) are the hero and heroine of the oldest poetical romance in Persian literature, by ‘Unṣurī (died 431 A.H.), which, like that of Waisa and Rāmīn, is said to have appeared in Pehlevi, under the Sāsānians, and to have been subsequently lost.

8. [Persian word omitted]—patiendum est. For this form see Platts, Persian Grammar, Part I. § 95.

[Persian word omitted]—wash away every stain of ‘self’ in the ocean of divine love.

9. [Persian word omitted]—self-abasement, according to the proverb: Humility exalts a man.

[Persian word omitted]—ecstasy, loss of personal consciousness, produced by contemplation of the beauty of God. The torrent, furiously rushing along in its low channel, unites these qualities.

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—among spiritual disciples you will attain the highest degree, if you serve him who is highest.

(Quatrain 340).

Cf. also Ḥāfiẓ (II. 98. 3): [Persian phrase omitted], ringleader of the intoxicated.

[Persian phrase omitted]—the play on [Persian word omitted] and [Persian phrase omitted] cannot be preserved in English.

[Persian word omitted] in this line may be referred either to God or to the [Persian word omitted] (Director) who is here Shamsi Tabrīz, and throughout the Dīvān it will be found, for the most part, impossible to distinguish between them.

12. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. the common phrase [Persian phrase omitted], it was of no use. Latin and French have similar idioms (damnum facere and faire une perte).

[Persian phrase omitted]—do not conceal what is perfectly obvious, proclaim your love.

14. [Persian phrase omitted]—because they would be inaudible to the sensual ear.

[Persian phrase omitted]—the sky, which Orientals, perhaps owing to some optical peculiarity, often see as green (cf. Garcin de Tassy, La poésie religieuse chez les Persans, p. 24, note), or rather they consider blue and green to be merely varieties of the same colour. This metaphor is a favourite one with our poet. Cf. a passage from Browne’s ‘The Modern Traveller’ quoted in Rosen’s Mas̤navī, p. xx: The splendid Tekieh (or monastery) of Mewlawy dervishes (at Konieh) is the first among such buildings in the Turkish Empire, and is universally celebrated. Its cupola covered with shining green tiles is conspicuous from afar.

15. [Persian word omitted]—the body, ‘this fleshly dresse’ (Henry Vaughan).

[Persian phrase omitted]—when the soul is no longer blinded by sensual desires and affections, it perceives that all phenomena are intoxicated and reeling with the wine of love. Cf. Gulshani Rāz, 825 seq.

16. [Persian phrase omitted]—illimitable, transcending Space.

17. [Persian word omitted]—an allusion to Shamsi Tabrīz ([Arabic word omitted] = sun, in Arabic).

18. [Persian phrase omitted]—so end a large number of these poems. Speech is only the prelude to silence: true worshippers are ‘breathless with adoration’ (cf. Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, pp. 5, 261, 326).

Poem II

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—this obscure phrase may refer (1) to the different categories of being, i.e. the series of emanations which connect the phenomenal world with the Divinity (cf. Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 77), or (2) to Man, who is a world within a world, the microcosm contained in the macrocosm. See Gulshani Rāz, 140 seq. [in 144, second miṣrā‘, read ‘by me he sees and by me he hears’: the words are taken from the tradition quoted on p. 15].

[Persian word omitted]—phenomenal appearance opposed to [Persian word omitted], spiritual reality.

[Persian phrase omitted]—when Man annihilates his lower nature and divests himself of all that is not God, he no longer has anything in common with the world of illusions around him.

and see note on XXXVII. 16.

[For the mystical signification of [Persian word omitted] see Gulshani Rāz, 763 seq. It is used here because its crookedness makes it resemble the [Persian word omitted] (polo-stick).].

5–6.—What if God should bestow on us the beatific vision of eternal Truth, as He did, e.g. to Moses at Mt Sinai?

[Persian phrase omitted]—a reference to Kor. XXVII. 16: ‘and Solomon was David’s heir, and he said, O people, we have been taught the language of birds.’

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—the hoopoe ([Persian word omitted]) which Solomon sent with a letter to Bilqīs, queen of Sheba (Kor. XXVII. 20–45).

[Persian word omitted]—cf. the Arabic expression: [Arabic expression omitted], ‘he conferred upon me a permanent badge of favour’ (Lane, under [Arabic word omitted]), and see XL. 9, with note on [Persian word omitted]. The ring-dove is called in Arabic [Arabic phrase omitted].

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—when Not-being ([Persian word omitted]) reflects the qualities of Being ([Persian word omitted]) and thus loses to a certain extent its own negative and phenomenal character, it receives the name of [Persian word omitted], Contingent being. This is the state of Man, in whom the flesh and the spirit are forever at war.

[Persian phrase omitted] also means ‘to speak,’ and so possibly here.

[Persian phrase omitted]—adjective used as noun (see Vullers, under [Persian word omitted]). It may however be translated: our distressed one, i.e. the soul. Cf. [Persian phrase omitted] = to your drunken eyes (Ḥāfiẓ, I. 4. 6).

9. [Persian words omitted]—both—and.

[Persian phrase omitted]—great and small, high and low, go hand in hand to seek God. Ḥāfiẓ refers to the partridge being hunted by the falcon (I. 454. 9, and 532. 4), and this explains the reading of B, [Persian phrase omitted], their falcons, i.e. the falcons pursuing them.

[Persian phrase omitted]—‘the shining table-lands To which our God Himself is moon and sun’ (Tennyson).

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—Saturn, according to the Ptolemaic system, is lord of the seventh heaven.

11. [Persian word omitted]—the ninth and highest heaven.

[Persian phrase omitted]—alluding to the [Persian word omitted] or mystic dance, which represents allegorically the harmonious movement of the spheres (see Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 182).

14. [Persian name omitted]—for Ṣalāḥu’ddīn Zarkūb (Goldsmith) see Redhouse’s Mas̤navī, p. 110.

Poem III

(Ḥāfiẓ, II. 468. 5).

2. [Persian word omitted]—the pointing [Persian word omitted] is also possible.

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—for the cruelty of the Beloved see Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 30 seq. Grief and pain are often synonymous with love in the language of mystics.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—i.e. in the [Persian word omitted] (cf. Ibnu’l Fāriḍ, Tā’iyya, beyt 434).

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—scan zi giryash (⏑ – –).

7. [Persian word omitted]—the relapse from ecstasy into consciousness.

[Persian word omitted]—the cup-bearer is God, who intoxicates all creation with the rapture of love (see Gulshani Rāz, 805 seq.).

[Persian phrase omitted]—the final [Persian letter omitted] in [Persian word omitted] does not here denote the feminine gender but has an intensive force (see Wright’s Arabic Grammar, Vol. I. p. 139). The word is used adjectivally = [Persian word omitted]. Cf. [Persian phrase omitted] (T. 200. 10ᵃ), and [Persian phrase omitted] (T. 215. 1ᵃ).

Poem IV

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—this famous tradition, which innumerable Ṣūfī poets and commentators have illustrated and embellished (cf. especially a beautiful passage in Jāmī’s Yūsuf ū Zulaikhā, p. 16), runs in Arabic:

I was a hidden treasure and I desired to be known, so I created the creation in order that I might be known.

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—every object reflects one or more of the divine attributes, but Man, as the microcosm, reflects them all. ‘Man,’ says Lāhījī (Gulshani Rāz, 141), ‘is the eye of the world, whereby God sees His own works.’

[Persian phrase omitted]—the earthly part of Man is compared to the back, his eternal attributes to the face of a mirror. He is ‘blackened on one side with the darkness of Not-being in order to reflect Real Being’ (Lāhījī on Gulshani Rāz, 265).

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—straw is mixed with clay to form a kind of stucco or mortar ([Persian term omitted]). Unless you are pure clay, i.e. entirely purged of self, the divine image reflected in your heart will be blurred and incomplete.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—i.e. you return to me no better than when you entered the world.

[Persian phrase omitted]—suggested perhaps by the verse which runs as a refrain through Kor. LV.

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—the transforming influence of divine grace.

[Persian word omitted] = [Persian word omitted] in beyt 4, whatever in Man’s nature is false and unessential.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—Shamsi Tabrīz.

[Persian word omitted]—the perpetual raying out or emanation of the Absolute: hence grace, inspiration.

See Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 85, and ‘Aṭṭār, Manṭiqu’ṭṭair, 621.

[Persian phrase omitted]—in allusion to the quickening breath of Jesus, whom Moslems call [Arabic phrase omitted] (cf. Kor. IV. 169). Ḥāfiẓ has [Persian phrase omitted] (I. 228. 3), and [Persian word omitted], of the Spring (I. 540. 1).

[Persian word omitted], the intellectual faculty, involving the separation of the thinker from the object of his thought, and therefore dualistic, is constantly opposed to [Persian word omitted], the spiritual faculty (intuition, illumination, inner light) which attains the truth by transcending thought.

[Persian word omitted]—eternal life in God, only to be gained through annihilation of self: [Arabic phrase omitted].

11. [Persian word omitted]—here used as a noun, cf. [Persian word omitted], II. 8.

Poem V

[Persian word omitted]—sweetmeats and small coins which are thrown among the bystanders at a wedding and on other festal occasions.

See for [Persian phrase omitted] note on II. 3, and for [Persian word omitted] note on IX. 9.

[Persian word omitted]—spent in seeking God and devoted to the sleepless passion which he inspires.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—the prayer of the perfect spiritual man is identical with the divine will. [Persian word omitted] and the pronominal suffix in [Persian word omitted] refer to the same person, probably Shamsi Tabrīz.

[Persian phrase omitted]—see note on III. 3.

6. [Persian word omitted]—from [Persian infinitive omitted].

[Persian phrase omitted]—for the simile, see note on XVI. 22. The sign of Zuhra or Anāhīd, the celestial Venus, is in the third heaven. She leads the starry choirs to music. According to the legend Zuhra, a mortal woman, was beloved by two angels, Hārūt and Mārūt, whom she beguiled to tell her ‘the ineffable name,’ and by means of this talisman gained admission to heaven. See Mīrkhwānd’s Rauẓatu’ṣṣafā translated by Rehatsek, Vol. I. p. 75 seq. and Sale’s note on Kor. II. 96.

[Persian word omitted]—for then all earthly discords will be drowned in the divine harmony.

[Persian word omitted] includes the sorrow of the soul caused by her passionate longing to be united with God, and also the pains which he inflicts either as a probation or as the result of jealousy (see note on XXV. 12).

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—see Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 34, where the poet makes an apology for calling God by this name.

[Persian word omitted]—the ornamental design traced with henna on the hands and feet of a bride.

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—because it is [Persian word omitted] (Not-being).

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—see note on VIII. 4.

Poem VI

1. [Persian word omitted]—like [Persian phrase omitted] in Gulshani Rāz, 402, the mortification of all desires, whether sensual or intellectual. True spirituality (to quote Juan de la Cruz) seeks in God the bitter more than the agreeable, prefers suffering to solace, would rather lack all good for God’s sake than possess it, is better pleased with dryness and affliction than with sweet communications: knowing that in this it follows Christ and denies self, instead of peradventure seeking self in God, which is against Love.

[Arabic word omitted]—Mohammed said: Poverty is my pride, and again Poverty is blackness of face (dishonour) in both worlds (see his own explanation of the inconsistency in Malcolm’s History of Persia, Vol. II. p. 268, note). The Ṣūfīs have given these sayings a mystical turn. [Arabic word omitted] becomes poverty of ‘self,’ i.e. self-annihilation, and by [Arabic phrase omitted] they mean the darkness which is nothing but excess of light betokening the proximity of Being (cf. Gulshani Rāz, 123 seq.). ‘I tell you, by the eternal Truth, that ye are not rightly poor while ye have a will to perform the will of God, or any desire of God and eternity; for the poor man is he who wills, knows, and desires nothing’ (Eckhart, Deutsche Mystiker, Vol. II. p. 281).

[Persian phrase omitted]—according to the Burhāni Qāṭi‘ this is ‘the name of Qārūn’s treasure: it is said to be in perpetual motion under the ground.’ For Qārūn (Korah) see note on XLIII. 4.

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. 1 Corinthians, ch. ii. 9: Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

[Arabic word omitted]—the Moslem turns his face in prayer towards the Ka‘ba, the mystic directly to God.

4. [Persian word omitted]—[Persian word omitted] in the next line suggests the emendation [Persian word omitted] (sweet voice, melody). [Persian word omitted], however, does not seem to occur, and the change from [Persian word omitted], as the word is commonly written in Persian, to [Persian word omitted], is less easy.

[Persian phrase omitted]—for this repetition of the pronoun cf. XXXVI. 5.

[Persian phrase omitted]—even if thou dost not call me into thy presence.

[Arabic word omitted]—Arabic broken plural of [Arabic word omitted] from the root [Arabic root omitted].

[Arabic phrase omitted]—there are various interpretations of these words: the most probable is that which makes them refer to the seven verses of the opening Sūra of the Kor’ān ([Arabic title omitted]).

For [Persian phrase omitted] see note on IV. 2.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—the love of God.

Know that phenomenal forms are pitchers: with draughts of the Ideal,Like a pitcher, we all are being filled and emptied continually.

The draught is not derived from the pitcher, it comes from another source;Like the pitcher we are ignorant of the springs which replenish it.

(T. 252. 2).

[Arabic word omitted]—sing. [Arabic word omitted].

[Persian phrase omitted]—the tribulation which the soul suffers in the world.

[Persian word omitted]—cf. note on 4. But [Persian phrase omitted] may be construed together = [Persian phrase omitted].

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—literally: not even an [Arabic word omitted] (cry for quarter) remained to me, i.e. for love’s sake I was prepared to sacrifice all. Prof. Bevan suggests that [Persian word omitted] here may be the plural of [Arabic word omitted], object of desire. [Persian word omitted] followed by a plural is found in Khāqānī (500–582 A.H.). According to the Bahāri ‘Ajam (Vullers, under [Persian word omitted]) this use is rare and archaic. But a stronger argument, to my mind, against taking [Persian word omitted] in the sense proposed is the occurrence, which can hardly be accidental, of [Persian word omitted] in the next line.

12. [Arabic word omitted]—this term is employed by Jalālu’ddīn to denote the perpetual replenishment of the phenomenal world by a succession of emanations from the Absolute.

13. [Persian phrase omitted]—at first sight these words seem to defy the rules of grammar. Obviously the sense is: [Persian phrase omitted], and this can be obtained from the text only by treating [Persian phrase omitted] as a compound adjective. In such formations [Persian word omitted] is usually prefixed, but cf. ‘Aṭṭār, Manṭiqu’ṭṭair, 525:

[Persian phrase omitted]—a play on [Persian word omitted], He (God), and [Persian word omitted] or [Persian word omitted], the sound of a dog’s bark.

[Arabic word omitted]—alluding to the doctrine of the Trinity (see Kor. IV. 169, with Sale’s note, V. 77).

[Persian phrase omitted]—as in the Magian religion.

14. [Persian phrase omitted]—during this life the body is conscious of the soul’s superiority, but not in the divine presence, for then it is non-existent.

15. [Persian phrase omitted]—the poet puns on the double meaning of [Persian word omitted]: (1) the city of that name, and (2) manifestation (from Arabic [Arabic word omitted]), with a reference to [Persian phrase omitted].

Poem VII

1. [Persian word omitted]—this is perhaps the most frequent of the inexhaustible images under which Oriental writers represent beauty.

[Persian phrase omitted]—a not uncommon metaphor to signify what is incapable of being conceived. Cf. (T. 219. 6ᵃ).

[Persian phrase omitted]—cf. Song of Solomon, ch. viii. 7: ‘Many waters cannot quench love.’

2. [Persian word omitted]—‘a man of true self-abandonment must be unbuilt from the creature’ (Suso, quoted in Vaughan’s Hours with the Mystics, Vol. I. p. 271). And Meister Eckhart says: forasmuch as thou hast despoiled and denuded (verwüestet) thyself of all attributes, God must needs enter wholly into thy being and faculties, as it is written: ‘the voice crieth in the wilderness (wüeste).’ Let this eternal voice cry in thee, as it willeth, and be empty (wüeste) of thyself and of all things (Deutsche Mystiker, Vol. II. p. 22).

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—see note on III. 7.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. Eckhart quoted above.

[Persian word omitted]—Greek φιάλη.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—i.e. ‘you cannot find me: the drop is lost in the ocean.’

7. [Persian word omitted]—Nominativus pendens, cf. X. 2.

[Persian phrase omitted]—the iẓāfat is affixed because [Persian phrase omitted] is equivalent to an adjective. Cf. [Persian phrase omitted], sweet Samarcand (Mas̤navī, 8. 19).

Poem VIII

1. [Persian phrase omitted]—the perfect Ṣūfī.

[Persian phrase omitted]—in accordance with the tradition: Fasting is the food of God whereby he revives the bodies of the sincere.

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—see note on I. 15.

[Persian phrase omitted]—it is a well-known Oriental fancy, that treasures guarded by inviolable talismans lie buried in the ruins and remains of ancient splendour, e.g. the site of Persepolis.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—he is absorbed in the Sea of Absolute Being.

[Persian phrase omitted]—he can perform miracles, because his will is identical with the divine Will. The metaphor is drawn from the notion, found in Pliny, that the oyster is impregnated by rain-drops, which in due course become pearls. Cf. Gulshani Rāz, 568 seq., Sa‘dī’s Būstān, p. 230.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—mystics dwell in the spiritual universe, of which the visible one is a faint inglorious reflection, ‘solemque suum, sua sidera norunt.’

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—scan | – – – |. Any short syllable may be lengthened before [Persian letter omitted]. Cf. I. 6, VI. 12, VI. 15, etc.

[Persian phrase omitted]—see note on IV. 10. Mere learning will never enable a man to know God. ‘Mind is nothing but disease, And natural health is ignorance,’ i.e. inspiration.

Regard unbelief and faith as the white and the yolk in this egg,Between them, joining and dividing, “a barrier which they shall not pass.”

When He hath graciously fostered the egg under His wing,Infidelity and religion disappear: the bird of Unity spreads its pinions.

[Persian phrase omitted]—the Ṣūfī adept is above law. Whatever he does proceeds directly from God, just as a flute produces harmonies or discords at the will of the musician.

9. [Persian word omitted]—the created world, which considered per se is Not-being, although it may be said to exist as a manifestation of the Creator.

[Persian word omitted]—cf. Wordsworth’s ‘trailing clouds of glory do we come From God who is our home.’ But Jalālu’ddīn refers to the second birth of dying to the world and absorption in the Divinity.

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—Jāmī, in the Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 20 seq., asserts on the authority of the Kashfu’l Maḥjūb, that there are 4000 saints ‘unacquainted with each other and ignorant of their exalted state, who are always hidden from themselves and others.’

[Persian phrase omitted]—cf. the ḥadīs̤: he who seeks earnestly shall find.

Poem IX

This ghazal was sent by the poet Sa‘dī to Shamsu’ddīn Hindī, prince of Shīrāz, who had asked him ‘to select the best ode, with the most sublime thoughts, that he knew of as existing in Persian, and to send it to him for presentation to the great Khān of the Moguls’ (Redhouse’s Mas̤navī, p. 28).

1. [Persian phrase omitted]—not as Redhouse: ‘to witness our departure who’ll be found?’ [Persian word omitted], like [Persian word omitted], is the term applied to a walk taken for diversion or recreation.

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—see note on XVII. 1.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—a variation of the well-known verse:

[Persian phrase omitted] is a very common idiom, to express contrast.

5. [Persian word omitted]—i.e. flourishing.

[Persian word omitted]—‘the Chosen one’: Mohammed, whom the Ṣūfīs identify with Universal Reason ([Persian phrase omitted]), the first emanation from the Absolute. See Gulshani Rāz, 19.

6. [Arabic word omitted]—Kor. XCIII. 1.

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—a famous miracle of the Prophet’s.

[Persian word omitted]—because her light is borrowed from the sun.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—referring to the dissolution of personality in the divine effulgence. ‘The fissure of the moon typifies nothing else but renunciation of the external for the internal’ (Dabistān, Vol. III. p. 201).

[Persian phrase omitted]—lit., ‘wherefore is thine eye on the side further from…?’

[Persian phrase omitted]—their bodies were effaced in the glory of the divine presence.

[Persian phrase omitted]—i.e. in death.

10. [Persian phrase omitted] may be understood either as Universal Soul ([Persian phrase omitted]), which comprehends all particular souls, or as Absolute Being (see Gulshani Rāz, 562 seq.). But these alternatives are only different aspects of the One.

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—or [Persian word omitted]? The double preposition is common in older Persian.

The foam never rests on the surface of the sea,Because the motion of the replenishing wave does not allow it to rest.

All the foam becomes water, that it may reach the shore,Because there is no bicolority in the heart of the ocean of Unity.

(T. 354. 9ᵃ).

12–13.—a figurative description of [Persian word omitted] (ecstasy).

13.—this couplet is [Persian term omitted], i.e. it contains three middle rhymes in addition to the end-rhyme.

14. [Persian phrase omitted]—referring to such allegories as we find, e.g. in Jāmī’s Salāmān ū Absāl, where Shāhi Yūnān typifies the First Intelligence ([Persian phrase omitted]) and Prince Salāmān the soul of Man, while [Persian phrase omitted] will correspond to the Sage, who is above them both.

[Persian phrase omitted]—a ‘veil’ is whatever prevents union with the Deity. “Some one said to Junaid (ob. 297 A.H.): ‘I find that the shaikhs of Khorāsān recognise three species of veils; the first is human nature ([Persian word omitted]), the second is the world, and the third is concupiscence ([Persian word omitted]).’ ‘These,’ answered Junaid, ‘are veils on the hearts of the vulgar; the elect are veiled otherwise, namely by regarding works, by seeking future recompense for them, and by considering the favour of God’” (Jāmī, Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 92).

15. [Persian phrase omitted]—see note on XVII. 11.

16. [Persian phrase omitted]—all visible objects are but shadows of their archetypes in the Ideal world.

17. That phenomena derive from the Ideal what partial existence they possess is shown by the myriads of [Persian phrases omitted], i.e. of those who have annihilated self and embraced death in order to gain perfect union with the Ideal. Cf. note on II. 4.

19. [Persian word omitted], water-skin, is opposed to [Persian phrase omitted], wine-jar, as Reason, logic, scientific method, to Love, illumination, intuitive knowledge.

[Arabic word omitted]—for ‘cup-bearer’ in the translation read ‘water-bearer.’ The word usually has a tashdīd: [Arabic word omitted], but may be scanned as an iambus whenever the metre requires it (cf. T. 211. 4, 277. 8, 304. 5ᵃ, 307. 4ᵃ). So [Arabic word omitted] instead of [Arabic word omitted] (R. 190. 7). Conversely, a tashdīd is sometimes added (see note on XXIII. 5).

20. [Persian phrase omitted]—although the rays of the sun of Being are diffused and woven through creation, yet the sun itself must be distinguished from the objects which vanish as soon as its rays are withdrawn.

Poem X

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—lit. ‘the punishment of him who lives without thy face—is there a worse (punishment) than that?’

[Persian word omitted]—aorist of [Persian infinitive omitted].

[Persian word omitted] = [Persian word omitted]. In the second miṣrā‘ there is a play on the double meaning of [Persian word omitted].

3. [Persian word omitted]—phenomena, the outward shows of things.

[Persian phrase omitted]—I have noted this ambiguous use of [Persian word omitted] in the following passages of the Dīvān: T. 82. 4, 83. 5, 96. 2ᵃ, 100. 3ᵃ, 162. 8ᵃ (cf. also Ḥāfiẓ, I. 392. 3, II. 510. 6). The words are not connected by derivation.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—see VIII. 9, note.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—the pun is obvious.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—i.e. ‘woe befall it!’ Orientals throw earth upon their heads as a sign of mourning.

7. [Persian word omitted]—we shall often meet with this comparison of the soul to a bird.

[Persian phrase omitted]—see II. 11, note.

8. [Persian word omitted]—a novice in the mysteries of divine love, opp. to [Persian word omitted].

[Persian phrase omitted]—cf. with the use of the iẓāfat to denote agency expressions like ‘born of a woman.’ [Persian word omitted] is love regarded as a probation.

10. [Persian word omitted]—Niz̤āmī (535–599 A.H.) composed, while yet a young man, the mystical poem entitled Makhzanu’l Asrār, but his fame rests mainly on four great romances, Khosraw ū Shīrīn, Lailā ū Majnūn, Iskandar-nāma, and Haft Paikar. See Bacher, Niz̤āmī’s Leben und Werke, Ouseley’s Notices of Persian Poets, p. 43, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica under ‘Niz̤āmī.’

[Persian phrase omitted]—probably Lailā.

Poem XI

1. [Persian word omitted]—Persian is exceedingly rich in these prepositional adjectives, and their number might be increased to almost any extent.

3. [Persian phrase omitted] = nevertheless, cf. Italian ‘con tutto ciò,’ and Spanish ‘con todo eso.’

[Persian phrase omitted]—see the explanation of [Arabic phrase omitted], VI. 1, note, and cf. the passages quoted from Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite and Ludovic Blosius in Vaughan’s Hours with the Mystics, Vol. I. pp. 287–290.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—the nīmfatha (ă) is not pronounced after [Persian letter omitted] preceded by a long vowel, unless that vowel is a diphthong, e.g. [Persian word omitted], XV. 3, but the older poets do not always observe this condition.

[Arabic phrase omitted]—an exclamation of astonishment.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—this is the oculus cordis described by Hugo of St Victor: ‘an eye within…one that beholds at once the past, the present, and the future; which diffuses through all things the keen brightness of its vision; which penetrates what is hidden, investigates what is impalpable; which needs no foreign light wherewith to see, but gazes by a light of its own, peculiar to itself’ (Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics, Vol. I. p. 305).

[Persian phrase omitted]—compound adjective (noun + aorist stem).

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—Man is a plaything of the Deity: the favours which he receives are not the reward of merit, for whatever in him is good belongs to God.

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. X. 7.

[Persian phrase omitted]—the pure soul is a mirror reflecting and radiating the divine sunbeams.

On account of the contentment which these exalted ones commandEndeavour to avert what is decreed they hold unlawful.

They take an especial delight in what is decreed;It is infidelity for them to seek escape.

Cf. the ‘sainte indifférence’ of the French Quietists, and Eckhart in Deutsche Mystiker, Vol. II. p. 623 (translated by Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics, Vol. I. p. 152).

Stars in their courses move; yea, death and lifeHang on his nod and fly to the ends of earth,

His ministers of mourning or of joy.

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—referring to the ḥadīs̤: On the day of resurrection when some shall enter Paradise and others Hell, whoever has in his heart so much faith as a millet-seed, God will command that he be taken from the fire and cast into Kaus̤ar.

[Persian phrase omitted]—it is impossible to decide whether the poet wrote this or [Persian word omitted], the older form of [Persian word omitted].

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—the soul in her longing ‘spernit humum fugiente penna.’

[Persian phrase omitted]—this gesture denotes sorrow and despair, cf. ‘Aṭṭār, Manṭiqu’ṭṭair, 215, 864; Ḥāfiẓ, II. 76. 1; ‘Omar Khayyām, Quatrain 76. [Persian phrase omitted] or [Persian phrase omitted] also means ‘to salute.’

15. [Persian phrase omitted], which some MSS. read, is inadmissible. Two short syllables, namely, the last of the second and the first of the third foot, coalesce and make one long syllable (see I. 6, note). It may be laid down as an invariable rule that when the second foot in Muẓāri‘ is | – ⏑ – – | instead of the normal | – ⏑ – ⏑ |, the third foot becomes | – – ⏑ |. Cf. XIII. 6, 14, 15; XXXIX. 4, 5, 8, etc.

[Persian word omitted]—cf. T. 70. 2ᵃ.

Poem XII

The lovely forms a moment’s sparkle gave,Then fell and mingled with the falling wave.

So perish all things fair, to re-adornThe Beauteous One whence all fair things were born.

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—like [Persian phrase omitted] (Ḥāfiẓ, II. 498. 4).

5. [Persian word omitted] for [Persian word omitted].

6–10.—the evolution of Man. Cf. a fine passage in the Mas̤navī (278. 8, translated by Whinfield, p. 159):

6. [Persian word omitted]—see Platts, Persian Grammar, Part I. § 98.

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—lose your individuality in the Absolute.

[Persian word omitted]—the sea of ‘Omān is the southernmost of three—the others are the [Arabic name omitted] and the [Arabic name omitted]—known collectively as the Persian Gulf.

Poem XIII

1. [Arabic word omitted]—the inner garment, opp. to [Arabic word omitted].

[Persian word omitted]—this terse construction is very frequent, cf. Ḥāfiẓ (I. 350. 2): [Persian phrase omitted], ’tis best to hide my woe, and Sa‘dī, Gulistān, p. 24: [Persian phrase omitted], ’tis best that sleep should overtake him.

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian word omitted], originally a substantive meaning ‘breast,’ ‘side,’ is used with the iẓāfat as a preposition = beside, towards. It must be distinguished from the preposition [Persian word omitted] = up, on, etc., which is prefixed to verbs.

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—Man proposes, but God disposes, therefore freewill is absence of self-will. See XI. 8, note.

5. [Arabic word omitted], lit. ‘used as a metaphor ([Arabic word omitted]),’ = [Arabic word omitted] (profane) contrasted with [Arabic word omitted] (divine). The subject understood is [Persian phrase omitted], i.e. all except love.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—the world, which Ḥāfiẓ (I. 80. 7, II. 232. 8) likens to a γυνὴ πολυάνωρ. In the second miṣrā‘ [Persian word omitted] = (a) bosom, (b) limit.

7. [Persian word omitted]—see VI. 12, note.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—the celestial Rose and Wine, unlike their counterfeits on earth, are wholly free from defect: which is Not-being.

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—for the tashdīd see XXIII. 5, note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—see I. 2, note.

The Ṣūfī must live in the present, regarding neither yesterday nor to-morrow, but absorbed in the ‘eternal Now’ of divine energy. Cf. Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 6, note on [Arabic phrase omitted].

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—a play on [Persian word omitted], which means ‘heart,’ and also ‘adulterated coin.’

[Persian phrase omitted]—‘if you are not a slave’ i.e. of a base disposition. Among Orientals a ring in the ear is the badge of servitude (cf. [Persian phrase omitted] = thrall). The phrase corresponds to [Persian phrase omitted] in the preceding line.

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—this metaphor explains itself. Let the soul refuse to be led astray by the senses, that she may soar up to God on the wings of love.

12. [Persian word omitted]—not only worldly thoughts, but also intellectual apprehensions and all operations of the mind.

[Persian word omitted]—one who has no hair on his face, effeminate. Cf. the use of ‘glaber’ in Latin (Catullus, LXI. 142, etc.).

14. [Persian phrase omitted]—Kor. XXXIII. 53: and God is not ashamed of the truth.

16. [Persian phrase omitted]—the heart cannot reveal the bewildering rapture of divine knowledge, whereas the mirror is a tell-tale ([Persian word omitted]).

Poem XIV

This poem affords an example of the rhetorical artifice called [Persian phrase omitted], Question and Answer.

2. [Persian word omitted]—i.e. with fervid love.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. the Arabic expression: [Arabic expression omitted] he (the judge) invalidated the testimony (see Lane under [Arabic word omitted]).

[Persian word omitted]—for the adjectival force cf. [Persian phrase omitted], the balance is just, and see Lane under [Arabic word omitted].

[Arabic word omitted]—the ordinary meaning is ‘penalty,’ ‘forfeit,’ but according to the Ghiyās̤u’llughāt it sometimes = [Persian word omitted], ‘shame,’ ‘contrition.’ Thus [Persian phrase omitted] may be translated ‘having no cause for shame,’ i.e. ‘innocent.’

8. [Arabic word omitted]—the Arabicised form of Cæsar.

11. [Persian word omitted]—see notes on III. 3, V. 7, X. 8.

[Arabic word omitted]—Jurjānī (Kitābu’tta‘rīfāt, p. 19) gives three definitions of this word. The last is: ‘continuance, the non-preference of any thing to God.’ Here, I think, it signifies the permanent spiritual condition ([Arabic word omitted]), which never ‘deviates into sense,’ opposed to the momentary state of exaltation ([Arabic word omitted]).

12. This beyt occurs in Ḥāfiẓ, II. 496. 3, where the first miṣrā‘ reads:

The proverb will be found in Freytag, Vol. II. p. 730.

Poem XV

The uncontracted rhyme, [Persian words omitted], where however the [Persian letter omitted] is elided in pronunciation, does not appear in any of the MSS. except V.

Lines 1–6 give an allegorical picture of the Temple of Love.

[Persian word omitted]—the Burhāni Qāṭi‘ describes this instrument as ‘a piece of wood resembling a weaver’s comb ([Persian word omitted]), split at one end and adorned with bells.’

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—alluding to the ḥadīs̤: My earth and heaven contain me not, but the heart of my believing servant contains me.

[Persian phrase omitted]—i.e. these names are wholly metaphorical.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—because it protects a ‘hidden treasure’ (cf. the last beyt and see notes on IV. 2, VIII. 3). Prof. Bevan proposes to take the words in a different sense: ‘this house is under a charm’ and therefore dangerous to one who should imprudently violate its sanctity (see Ṭabarī, p. 829, Nöldeke, Geschichte der Sasaniden, p. 38). [Persian word omitted] is probably the Greek τέλεσμα.

[Persian word omitted]—this may = [Persian phrase omitted] (T. 299. 8ᵃ), or [Persian phrase omitted], which I prefer.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—love is expressed in music and song. The Mas̤navī opens with an invocation to the reed-flute ([Persian word omitted]). Cf. Rousselot, Les Mystiques Espagnols, p. 298, note.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—as the value of an oath depends upon the dignity of its object, the Persians, who are born flatterers, swear by you or something of yours, e.g. [Persian phrase omitted], by thy father’s grave, [Persian phrase omitted], by thy death (the greatest possible calamity), etc.

9. This couplet describes the dazzling effect of divine beauty.

10. [Persian word omitted]—see V. 6, note.

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—phenomena which veil God are likened to the tresses with which a coquette conceals her face. The poet means to say that, when the internal mirror is cleansed from ‘self,’ the illusion of plurality disappears.

12. [Persian phrase omitted]—Kor. XII. 31: ‘and she (Zulaikhā) said (to Joseph), “Come forth to them.” And when they beheld him they marvelled at him and cut their hands and said, “God forbid! this is not a man, but an exalted angel.”’ By cutting their hands the women showed that they had lost their senses and were absorbed in the Beloved.

14. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. the story (Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 47) of the lover who came to his friend’s house and sought admittance. ‘Who is there?’ ‘’Tis I.’ ‘Then begone.’ After a year he returned and being asked the same question replied, ‘’Tis thou who art at the door,’ whereupon his friend received him, saying, ‘There is no room for two “I’s” in one house.’ See also XIII. 9, note.

15. [Persian phrase omitted]—unity is incompatible with the existence of the fleshly nature ([Persian word omitted]).

16. [Persian phrase omitted]—engage in the ‘Greater Warfare’ against the passions, each one of which is a [Persian phrase omitted] or moral lion (Mas̤navī, 37. 4). Cf. Redhouse’s Mas̤navī, p. 101 seq. Juan de la Cruz (p. 180) in his commentary on stanza xx. of the Cántico Espiritual, l. 2, ‘Leones, ciervos, gamos saltadores,’ explains ‘leones’ as ‘the fierceness and violence of the irascible faculty,’ and again (stanza XXXVI. last line, ‘Entremos mas adentro en la espesura’) he says (p. 207): ‘Hence this thicket (espesura), which the soul desires to enter, may very properly be understood to mean the throng and multitude of troubles and tribulations, entrance into which is desired by the soul, because nothing delights and profits it more than suffering.’ Some may prefer to take [Persian phrase omitted] as meaning: Join the ranks of fearless lovers (cf. Mas̤navī, 37. 12: ‘the true lion is he who conquers himself’), and this interpretation agrees better with [Persian word omitted] in beyt 17.

(Jāmī.)

Cf. the verses (Mas̤navī, 6. 8; Redhouse, p. 6, l. 34 seq.) in which imagination is described as governing all human actions:

Poem XVI

3. The [Persian phrase omitted] is used to startle water-fowl, which, as they fly into the air, are attacked by a hawk (Bahāri ‘Ajam). According to a gloss on the Mas̤navī, ‘when the huntsman wishes to call his bird back, he beats a drum: the hawk, having an affection for the drum, returns speedily’ ([Persian phrase omitted]).

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—to repulse. Cf. [Persian phrase omitted], to abandon.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—an allusion to Kor. LVI. 87–88: ‘and if he be of those who draw nigh unto God, he shall enjoy peace and bounty ([Arabic word omitted]) and a garden of pleasure.’

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—the petty doles of Fortune, contrasted with divine beneficence.

[Persian word omitted]—[Persian word omitted] is the crocodile, or, generally, any large fish. For [Persian name omitted] see XII. 10, note, and for what may be called the ‘metrical’ tashdīd, XXIII. 5, note.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—Kor. XII. 84: ‘and he (Jacob) turned from them and cried, “O how I grieve for Joseph!”’ .

10. This couplet probably refers to Shaikh Najmu’ddīn Kubrā (see his life in Jāmī’s Nafaḥātu’l Uns, pp. 480–487), who was murdered by the Moguls ([Persian phrase omitted]) in the year 618 A.H. ‘At the moment of his martyrdom he had seized the forelock of an infidel, and after his death ten men could not release it from his grasp. Some say that in the following lines Maulānā Jalālu’ddīn Rūmī alludes to this event and his (spiritual) relationship to the Shaikh’:

Make fast the door and give us wine, for the hour is comeWhen the sallow-cheeked receive crimson wine.With one hand they quaff the pure wine of faith,With the other they grasp the forelock of an infidel.

Thus (2) corresponds exactly to the first miṣrā‘ of 10. For [Persian phrase omitted] we have [Persian phrase omitted], and for [Persian phrase omitted] (the dark tresses of the Beloved are called ‘infidel’ because they veil his unity) [Persian phrase omitted]. The reference to Najmu’ddīn is confirmed by the fact that Sulaimān Khān, the Bābī, recited this couplet ([Persian phrase omitted]) at his execution. See Browne’s Episode of the Bāb, Vol. II. p. 334.

‘Alī was Adam and Seth and Job and EnochAnd Joseph and Jonah and Hūd.

(T. 174. 2, 4, 5.)

Cf. the poem (T. 6. 1 seq.) which is the exordium of the first Dīvān. ‘Alī’s bravery was never doubted, and he is therefore fitly joined with Rustam, the national hero of Persia. Both stand here as types of the divine perfection.

13. [Persian phrase omitted]—i.e. earthly goods, Mammon. [Persian word omitted] describes the sparkling lustre of the stone.

14. [Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian phrase omitted] is here a noun = complainant, but if we read

it becomes an adjective qualifying [Persian word omitted]. For the scansion, in this case, see XI. 15, note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—cf. notes on V. 7, I. 9.

15. [Persian word omitted]—Pharaoh is to Moses as [Persian word omitted] (imagination) to [Persian word omitted] (divine truth).

[Persian word omitted]—suggesting [Persian word omitted] (darkness), and hence appropriately followed by [Persian word omitted] in the second miṣrā‘.

16. [Persian word omitted]—the abbreviated form of [Persian word omitted]. As a rule, the past participle retains final [Persian letter omitted] except in some compounds. Cf. e.g. [Persian examples omitted].

17. [Persian phrase omitted]—not ‘because of vulgar envy’ (as in the text), but ‘because I am jealous of the crowd.’ The sentiment is that of Horace: Odi profanum vulgus et arceo.

18. [Persian phrase omitted]—this anecdote of Diogenes the Cynic ([Arabic word omitted]) is found in the Lives of the Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius, whose words are: λύχνον μεθ’ ἡμέραν ἅψας περιῄει λέγων “ἄνθρωπον ζητῶ” (ed. C. G. Cobet, p. 142). It is told at greater length in the Mas̤navī, p. 459. 15 seq.; Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 257. Mīrkhwānd (Rauẓatu’ṣṣafā translated by Rehatsek, Vol. II. p. 279 seq.) gives a short notice of Diogenes and quotes a number of his sayings. The variant [Persian word omitted] means ‘ill-tempered.’

[Persian word omitted]—[Persian word omitted] often introduces a speech, without any preceding verb, such as [Persian infinitive omitted] or [Persian infinitive omitted].

19. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. VI. 11.

20. [Persian phrase omitted]—as the past participle in Persian has both an active and a passive signification, [Persian word omitted] is the seeing eye as well as the object seen.

(The ‘work-shop,’ as the poet proceeds to explain, is [Persian word omitted], Not-being, and ‘enter the work-shop’ = annihilate self.)

21. [Persian word omitted]—perhaps an imitation of the Koranic [Arabic word omitted].

Tuning his breast to rise or fall;And by a sacred, needful art

Like strings stretch every part,Making the whole most musical.

[Persian phrase omitted]—the [Persian letter omitted] in [Persian word omitted] is the [Persian phrase omitted] ([Persian letter omitted] of the agent), not the [Persian phrase omitted]. Translate: ‘Love is my rebeck-player.’ [Persian word omitted] in this sense is found again (T. 335. 3ᵃ). See a description and drawing of the rabāb in Lane’s Modern Egyptians, Vol. II. p. 70 seq.

[Arabic name omitted]—the Caliph ‘Othmān was famous for his personal beauty, and may therefore, like Joseph, represent symbolically the divine Beloved. ‘Othmān’s name occurs in ‘the apostolical succession of saints and prophets’ (Mas̤navī, 121. 11 seq.; Whinfield, p. 73 seq.). But why should it be used here in connexion with the rabāb? I can only suggest that [Persian phrase omitted] may have been the name of a particular tune called, perhaps, after some contemporary musician.

25. [Persian phrase omitted]—see II. 6, note.

Poem XVII

With this magnificent ode, which has been admirably rendered in English verse by Professor Falconer (Forbes’s Persian Grammar, p. 159), the reader should compare two poems of Henry Vaughan, entitled ‘The Search’ and ‘The Dwelling-place’ (Vol. I. pp. 33 and 241 of the Muses’ Library Edition). Unfortunately the text is not found in any of the MSS. which I have consulted except V; that given by Forbes (p. 38) agrees with R.

In the Baghdād of eternity we proudly were proclaiming “I am God”Before the tumult and mystery of Manṣūr.

Ere this image of the spirit became a builder on water and clay (the body),Our life was founded in the tavern of celestial truths.

(T. 185. 2ᵃ).

(For Manṣūr Ḥallāj cf. VI. 12, note, and see Herbelot’s Bibliothèque Orientale under Hallage, Ibn Khallikān, Vol. I. p. 423, Jāmī’s Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 168, ‘Aṭṭār’s Tadhkiratu’l Auliyā in Tholuck’s Blüthensammlung, pp. 310–326. He was executed at Baghdād in 309 A.H.)

[Arabic word omitted]—‘and He taught Adam the names of all things’ (Kor. II. 29).

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—i.e. Man was the final cause of creation. Cf. the ḥadīs̤: But for thee, but for thee, I had not created the heavens.

Concealed in selflessness, One Being wasExempt from ‘I’- and ‘Thou’-ness, and apart

From all duality.

(Translated by Mr E. G. Browne.)

3. [Persian word omitted]—phenomena. See note on XV. 11.

4. [Persian word omitted]—Arabic [Arabic word omitted].

5. [Persian word omitted]—a centre of Hindoo idol-worship.

[Persian word omitted]—a Magian fire-temple.

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—according to popular belief, this mountain, which Oriental geographers have localised in Caucasus, is five hundred parasangs high, and encompasses the whole earth. It is the fabled haunt of the dīvs and perīs, as well as of the

[Persian word omitted]—or Sīmurgh, a mysterious bird, perhaps identical with Sindbād’s Roc ([Persian word omitted]), by which the Ṣūfīs (e.g. ‘Aṭṭār in the Manṭiqu’ṭṭair) often represent the unknown God. See Lane’s Arabian Nights, Vol. III. p. 91, and Muṭarrizī’s commentary on [Arabic phrase omitted] (Ḥarīrī, Vol. II. p. 678), the text of which, accompanied by a translation, will be found in Garcin de Tassy’s Les Oiseaux et les Fleurs, p. 218 seq.

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—the pronominal suffix belongs to [Persian word omitted]. Abū ‘Alī Ḥusain Ibn ‘Abdullāh Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) was born near Bokhārā (370 A.H.), and soon became celebrated for his researches in science, medicine, and metaphysics. As the champion of free-thought against dogma, he gave great offence to the ‘ulamā, who accused him of blasphemy. He concluded an adventurous and somewhat Bohemian life, at the age of fifty-eight, in his patron’s gaol. Consult for further information Herbelot’s Bibliothèque Orientale under Sina, Ibn Khallikān, Vol. I. p. 440, and the article ‘Avicenna’ in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

10. [Arabic phrase omitted]—‘then he (Gabriel) approached (the Prophet), and drew nigh, until he was at the distance of two bow-lengths, or nearer’ (Kor. LIII. 8–9). But the Ṣūfīs interpret the passage as signifying the approach of Mohammed himself to the divine presence.

Ye who in search of God, of God, pursue,Ye need not search, for God is you, is you!Why seek a something which was missing ne’er?Save you none is, but you are—where, O where?

(T. 188. 6ᵃ).

12. [Persian phrase omitted]—as subject and object, lover and Beloved, are really identical (cf. T. 331. 2ᵃ, above), love itself cannot be predicated of any being except the One, symbolised here by Shamsi Tabrīz.

Poem XVIII

No doubt the poet had in his mind, if not before his eye, the sudden growth and blossoming of spring flowers: hence [Persian phrase omitted] is the natural antithesis to [Persian word omitted]. This seems the most probable explanation of a rather enigmatical phrase. Other passages, however, suggest that the meaning may be: Why, for the sake of one poor life, lose Him, whose love has claimed so many victims that he cannot take a step without a severed head (cf. II. 3) starting up at his feet?

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—perhaps a reminiscence of ‘Omar Khayyām, Quatrain 401:

Cf. (T. 161. 2ᵃ).

5. [Persian word omitted]—i.e. [Persian phrase omitted].

(T reads [Persian word omitted]; if this be correct, we must also read [Persian word omitted].)

[Persian word omitted]—the grammars do not mention this anomalous form. Only two other examples are known to me, viz. [Persian word omitted] and [Persian word omitted], which occur as rhymes (T. 167. 1 seq.).

Poem XIX

This poem is a metaphorical description of the mystic’s journey to and in God (see Gulshani Rāz, 288 seq.).

1. [Persian phrase omitted]—the Beloved.

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—i.e. transported me out of ‘self.’ The first stage is [Arabic word omitted], return from phenomenal to Absolute Being.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—like [Persian phrase omitted] (IX. 9).

6. In the second stage of his journey ([Arabic word omitted]) the pilgrim abides in God and experiences with Him the differentiation of Unity into plurality.

[Persian phrase omitted]—God revealed himself by successive emanations. For [Persian word omitted] see IX. 11, note.

[Persian word omitted]—Universal Reason, the first emanation.

[Persian phrase omitted]—proclaimed the majesty of its Maker.

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—He created phenomena. Cf. the passage, T. 354. 9ᵃ seq., quoted on p. 225.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—outward form is an illusion which dissolves at the command of God.

9. [Persian name omitted]—see XVII. 12, note. Vision and union are not to be grasped by intellectual effort. They are acts of grace.

Poem XX

Since one impulse from God is better than a hundred efforts,How should there be clues to Him who has no clue?

(T. 282. 9ᵃ).

Weave no more with soot, like the spider, a web of careWherein both woof and warp are rotten.While thou art silent, His speech is thy speech;While thou weavest not, God is the weaver.

(T. 181. 4ᵃ).

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—quick as the flight of fancy.

[Arabic word omitted]—truth known intuitively and not depending on logical demonstration.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—phenomena, plurality.

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—see XI. 12, note.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—as it seems uncertain whether the construction [Persian phrase omitted] is admissible, I now prefer to read [Persian word omitted], the shorter form of [Persian word omitted].

[Persian phrase omitted]—cf. VI. 8.

Poem XXI

1. [Persian phrase omitted]—surpasses in coquetry.

[Persian word omitted]—for the meaning ‘shut’ cf. Niz̤āmī, Iskandar-nāma, 55. 9: [Persian phrase omitted], and for the interpretation ‘fascinate’ cf. the use of [Persian phrase omitted] (Vullers, sub voc.). There may be an allusion to the practice of sorcerers, who deprive a man of sleep by making his effigy in wax ([Persian phrase omitted], Iskandar-nāma, 58. 18), sticking it while hot into his eye, and uttering a charm over it (Clarke’s Sikandar-nāma, p. 46). Possibly, however, the literal sense of [Persian infinitive omitted] is ‘pierce’ (see e.g. a passage from the Anvāri Suhailī in Spiegel’s Chrestomathia Persica, p. 39, ll. 17–19), and the frequent comparison of glances to arrows supports this view.

2. [Persian word omitted]—once, once for all. It modifies or restricts a statement ([Persian phrase omitted]), like [Persian word omitted], [Persian phrase omitted], and [Persian phrase omitted].

[Persian word omitted]—in Arabic prosody the long vowels [Arabic letter omitted] and [Arabic letter omitted], when they form the ridf, are treated as rhymes. Persian poets do not avail themselves of this liberty. The present examples are perhaps unique.

[Persian phrase omitted]—where is one who will devote his life for love’s sake? Sa‘dī has a delightful version of this allegory (Būstān, p. 224 seq.).

5. [Persian word omitted]—short for [Persian word omitted]. Cf. [Persian word omitted] for [Persian word omitted] in the phrase [Persian phrase omitted].

[Persian phrase omitted]—I have translated these words literally in order to preserve the play on [Persian word omitted] and [Persian word omitted], which occurs again (T. 70. 6ᵃ, 340. 10ᵃ). [Persian word omitted] is (1) a ring or hoop such as acrobats use in performing their feats, (2) a ringlet ([Persian phrase omitted], Ḥāfiẓ, III. 216. 2). [Persian phrase omitted] is equivalent to [Persian phrase omitted], i.e. to be made captive, and this, probably, is the meaning which the poet himself attached to the words, although he must have been conscious of their double ambiguity.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian phrase omitted] = to bear patiently the want of anything, like the Arabic [Arabic phrase omitted].

[Persian phrase omitted]—the Fountain of Life in the Land of Darkness. Niz̤āmī tells how Alexander, guided by the prophet Khiẓr, sought it in vain (Clarke’s Sikandar-nāma, p. 798 seq. Cf. Semelet’s Gulistān, p. 144).

Poem XXII

1. [Persian word omitted]—Sanā’ī is also distinguished by the titles of [Arabic word omitted] and [Arabic word omitted].

[Persian phrase omitted]—Abū’l Majd Majdūd ibn Ādam Sanā’ī, the first great poet of Ṣūfiism, began his career at the court of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, the Ghaznavite. Stung by the chance words of a half-witted buffoon, he abjured the society of princes and applied himself to solitary meditation. His chef-d’œuvre, the Ḥadīqatu’l Ḥaqīqat (finished in 535 A.H.), which formed the model for the Manṭiqu’ṭṭair of Farīdu’ddīn ‘Aṭṭār and the Mas̤navī, ran the gauntlet of theological censure until its orthodoxy was certified by a special decree. Sanā’ī died in 545 A.H. (see Ethé’s Catalogue). The date 576 A.H., given by Daulat Shāh, is erroneous. Further details will be found in the Encyclopædia Britannica under ‘Sanā’ī,’ Ouseley’s Notices of Persian Poets, p. 184, and Jāmī’s Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 693.

2–3. [Persian word omitted], [Persian word omitted], [Persian word omitted], and [Persian word omitted] are metaphors of the perishable phenomenal element in Man.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—human soul and reason, regarded as the embodiment of their Universals ([Persian phrase omitted] and [Persian phrase omitted]), emanate directly from, and eventually are re-united with, Absolute Being. Observe the different scansion of [Persian word omitted] in each miṣrā‘.

6. [Persian words omitted]—the divine principle pervading ‘this muddy vesture of decay.’

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian phrase omitted] (see note on [Persian phrase omitted] above), the Neo-platonic πνεῦμα as [Persian phrase omitted] is λόγος, which may be ranked among the few items of popular ignorance that we have not yet parted with. Cf. Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 148, note 3.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—in the upward progress of the soul from the Many to the One.

[Persian words omitted]—these are opposing types: spirit and flesh, Being and Not-being.

[Persian name omitted]—so called to distinguish it from [Persian name omitted], was before the Moghul invasion a large and flourishing city in Khorāsān, peculiarly important because of its vicinity to the northern frontier. Rai (Rhages) is said to have rivalled Baghdād in magnificence: its site near Teherān is now covered with ruins (see a résumé of its history in Brugsch’s Reise nach Persien, Vol. I. p. 233).

Concerning the anomalous formation of [Persian word omitted] and [Persian word omitted] cf. Wright’s Arabic Grammar, Vol. I. p. 153 D, Ibn Khallikān, Vol. I. p. 7.

Although both parties are engaged in one gameYet, as regards one another, they are natives of Marv and Rai (i.e. far asunder).

Each goes to his own place,Each fares according to his name.

The edition of the Mas̤navī (Bombay, 1863), which I have used throughout, agrees with B in reading [Persian word omitted] for [Persian word omitted]. The word is correctly explained in the margin: [Persian phrase omitted]. Doubtless it is a dialectical variety of the common form. Others (cf. the Burhāni Qāṭi‘ under [Persian word omitted] and the Būstān, p. 345, l. 5 of the commentary) derive it from [Persian word omitted], the locality of which they are candid enough to leave in nubibus.

[Persian words omitted] is a general term for the territories of the Byzantine Empire.

[Persian word omitted]—old, outworn. The term is generally used of a garment, and it may be so here. But see below.

[Persian word omitted]—plural of [Persian word omitted]. On consideration I prefer the variant [Persian word omitted], which enables us to give [Persian word omitted] the meaning commonly attached to it in Persian, viz. satin. Translate: How should satin accompany (match) a garment of wool? If [Persian word omitted] be retained, we must render [Persian word omitted] by ‘worn out apparel.’ The translation ‘an old man’ is not, I think, justified.

‘A silent (closed) mouth is compared to a point. Some explain this simile by the fact that a point is incapable of partition, or because beauties make their mouths small when they are not speaking. Khān Ārzū says: [Persian word omitted] means a cipher ([Persian word omitted]), and we know from arithmetic that, while the other figures have numerical value, a cipher is nought. Accordingly [Persian phrase omitted] and [Persian word omitted] are synonymous’ (Commentary ad loc.).

[Persian word omitted]—[Persian word omitted] is a possible reading.

Poem XXIII

4. [Arabic word omitted]—see Lane under [Arabic word omitted], and for the jingle with [Arabic word omitted] cf. I. 3, note.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—passive of [Persian phrase omitted], which is a compound transitive verb. This usage may sometimes lead to misapprehension. E.g. in the lines of Sa‘dī (Gulistān, p. 33):

[Persian word omitted]—the tashdīd is written metri causâ. Cf. (Jāmī)

Pertsch’s statement (ibid.), that ‘nur das letzere ([Persian word omitted]) heisst das Zuschauen, das erstere ([Persian word omitted]) dagegen die Zuschauer,’ is not in accordance with the facts. Cf. [Persian word omitted] (XXXVI. 2, note).

[Persian phrase omitted]—cf. XIX. 2–4. None have vision of God but he who can say with Manṣūr, ‘I am God’ (VI. 12, note).

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—referring, probably, to the sun. Cf. Kor. XXV. 62.

When you regard form, you have two eyes;Look on His light, which is single.

Necessarily the eye, when it falls on One,Itself is one: ‘two’ is out of sight.

The light of the two eyes cannot be dividedWhen a man’s eye is fixed upon His light.

7. In beyt 6 the poet used a metaphor implying dualism. He now corrects himself by affirming that all apparent difference is the manifestation of divine unity.

[Persian phrase omitted]—translate rather: ‘is mere explanation and error.’ [Persian word omitted] is often opposed to [Persian word omitted] as inferential to intuitive knowledge.

[Persian phrase omitted]—God was jealous of his hidden beauty and desired to display it (cf. IV. 2, note).

[Arabic word omitted]—these words introduce and give their name to the 93rd Sūra of the Kor’ān. They express here the revelation of God in the phenomenal world.

[Persian phrase omitted] = [Persian phrase omitted].

Poem XXIV

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—the variant [Persian word omitted], meaning literally ‘butter-milk,’ is used, as appears from this passage, in the secondary sense of ‘deception.’ Cf. the phrase [Persian phrase omitted] = [Persian phrase omitted].

4. [Arabic word omitted]—plural of [Arabic word omitted]. Owing to the absence of vowel points in the MSS. we cannot determine whether [Arabic word omitted] or [Arabic word omitted] has greater authority here. [Arabic word omitted], however, is a word seldom met with in Persian.

6. [Arabic word omitted]—an oblong trench, where the corpse is deposited, in the side of a grave.

8. [Persian word omitted]—Kor. XII. 15.

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. I. 14 for a similar division of the MSS. between [Arabic word omitted] and [Arabic word omitted].

Poem XXV

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—probably we should render: ‘On the strange night…thou wilt escape.’

[Persian phrase omitted]—lit. ‘the Beloved’s voice.’ I have slightly modified the translation in order to bring out the contrast between [Persian word omitted] and [Persian word omitted]. In the following miṣrā‘ [Persian word omitted] and [Persian word omitted] form one of those assonances, like [Persian phrase omitted] below, which are so pleasing to the Persian ear.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian word omitted] for [Persian word omitted] (cf. IX. 19, note) would make the meaning plainer.

6. [Persian word omitted]—‘on allume.’ The poet regards death as a spiritual resurrection.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. Kor. II. 18: ‘they put their fingers in their ears because of the crashing thunder, for fear of death.’

[Arabic phrase omitted]—Kor. LXIX. 13.

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—complete union involves the identification of subject and object (see notes on IV. 11, XXIII. 6; Gulshani Rāz, 123 seq., 139 seq.).

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—the bewildering variety of phenomena by which Being is manifested.

When the squint-eyed man made haste to enter the house,There seemed to be two bottles before his eye.

‘Which of those two bottles,’ said he,‘Shall I bring to you? Give me a clear explanation.’

‘There are not two bottles,’ replied the master, ‘go,Cease to squint and do not see more than one.’

‘O master,’ he said, ‘rebuke me not.’Said the master, ‘Break one of those two.’

When one was broken, both vanished from sight;’Tis lust and anger that make a man see double.

[Persian phrase omitted] = (1) [Persian phrase omitted] and (2) the ‘evil eye’ (see Lane’s Modern Egyptians, Vol. I. p. 315).

[Persian phrase omitted]—it is high treason against the majesty of Love to suggest that He, who is a pure spirit, can ever dwell in a mortal body. Cf. Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 29, and the ḥadīs̤ there quoted: “Verily Sa‘d is a jealous man, and I am more jealous than he, and God is more jealous than I, and of His jealousy He prohibits ‘all pollutions both outward and inward’” (Kor. VI. 152).

[Persian word omitted]—[Persian word omitted], fold, has in modern Persian become a preposition meaning ‘inside.’

[Persian phrase omitted]—for the [Persian phrase omitted] see Platts, Persian Grammar, Part I. § 29.

14. [Persian word omitted]—this and [Persian word omitted] in the next miṣrā‘ belong to the Past Conditional (Platts, ibid. § 97). The Present Conditional, which is not mentioned by Platts, occurs several times in the Dīvān and forms the rhyme of a ghazal (T. 337. 12ᵃ) beginning:

[Arabic word omitted]—[Persian word omitted] Arabicised. When Sa‘dī fell into the hands of the Franks, he was set to work in the fosse of Tripoli ([Persian phrase omitted]—Gulistān, p. 62).

[Persian phrase omitted]—a beggar who has lost his sight. Kings and blind men, says Dumas, are born deceivers.

15. [Persian word omitted]—a compound noun, like [Persian word omitted], wash-house.

[Persian word omitted] also means ‘tell-tale’ or, as an epithet of light, ‘ray-scattering’ (see XIII. 15, note).

16. [Persian phrase omitted]—the uninitiated.

[Persian phrase omitted]—these words bear a double sense: (1) all that is worthy, (2) all people.

[Persian phrase omitted]—I, as an individual, am non-existent: God is the totality of Being, and therefore of Knowledge.

17. [Persian word omitted]—cf. XVI. 20.

[Persian word omitted]—[Arabic word omitted] (pl. [Arabic word omitted] and [Arabic word omitted]) is employed by the Ṣūfīs to denote all kinds of extraordinary favours which God bestows upon the spiritual adept.

In the Mas̤navī (542. 16; Whinfield, p. 301) Jalālu’ddīn illustrates his doctrine of manifestation per contraria by the metaphor of two standards, a white and a black, which are set up in successive periods, e.g. Adam and Iblīs, Abraham and Nimrod, Moses and Pharaoh.

Poem XXVI

1. [Persian phrase omitted]—‘self’ refers here, not, as it commonly does, to Man’s phenomenal individuality, the cheating mask which prevents him from seeing things as they are, but to the divine spark or spirit which dwells within him and cannot die. This is the true ‘self.’ Cf. XVII. 11, note, and Kor. L. 15: We (God) are nearer to him than the jugular vein.

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—the preposition is more usually omitted with verbs of motion, as in XXII. 9.

[Persian phrase omitted]—cf. XXXIII. 2.

[Persian phrase omitted]—i.e. I wept for joy. Cf. Ḥāfiẓ, I. 64. 3:

3. [Persian word omitted]—full-blown. Arabic poets employ [Arabic word omitted] and [Arabic word omitted] in the same sense.

[Persian phrase omitted]—cf. XIII. 8, note. [Persian word omitted] signifies here Contingent or Phenomenal Being.

[Arabic name omitted]—the famous sword given by Mohammed to ‘Alī, here used figuratively = death, corruption.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—the Beloved ([Persian phrase omitted]).

[Persian phrase omitted]—in ecstasy. The words may also be translated ‘rustled its leaves’ (see Vullers under [Persian word omitted] and [Persian word omitted]).

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—referring to [Persian phrase omitted] in the last beyt.

[Persian word omitted]—from [Persian infinitive omitted].

[Persian phrase omitted]—the five senses and the four elements.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—plurality is a phantom (cf. XXIII. 6, note). This illustration recurs in the Mas̤navī (21. 5):

[Persian phrase omitted]—the language of the heart is—silence. See I. 18, note.

(Shelley).

How many words are there in the world! Yet all are essentially one;Water becomes one when you break the jars.

The soul sends intelligence to every person of insightWhen by acknowledging Unity you pluck away your heart from speech.

[Persian phrase omitted]—God is the only real agent ([Arabic phrase omitted]). Cf. Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, pp. 15, 78, 91, 242.

Poem XXVII

This poem is headed in T.: [Arabic heading omitted].

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. VII. 5, note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—the sea (of Absolute Being).

[Persian phrase omitted]—as a rain-drop.

6. [Arabic name omitted]—see note on IX. 5.

[Persian phrase omitted]—on the occasion of his departure ([Arabic word omitted]) from Mecca, A.D. 622. [Arabic name omitted] is the older name for the city which obtained at this time the honourable designation of [Arabic phrase omitted], or briefly, Medina.

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—introrsum ascende. Cf. the ḥadīs̤: He who knows himself knows his Lord.

‘When the ruby, coming white from the mine, is dipped in fresh blood ([Persian phrase omitted]) and exposed to the sun, it turns red’ (Sūdī, Commentary, ad loc.).

[Persian phrase omitted]—lit. ‘become recipient of’ (see Platts, Persian Grammar, Part I. § 92).

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. XXVI. 1, note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—the earthly nature is transmuted by self-annihilation into the pure spiritual essence, which is its real and everlasting self. Cf. IV. 7.

Poem XXVIII

1. [Persian word omitted]—this is not an irregular plural, but is composed of [Persian components omitted], the contracted form of the adverbial suffix, [Persian suffix omitted]. Cf. [Persian word omitted] and [Persian word omitted] = νυχθήμερον.

[Persian phrase omitted]—although [Persian word omitted] and [Persian word omitted] are often used synonymously by mystical writers, it is convenient in translating to keep a separate word for each.

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—because the soul is the mirror of God, in whom all images are contained.

[Persian phrase omitted]—the radiant beauty of thy face illumines even Chigil in Turkistān, the home of beauty.

4. [Persian word omitted]—literally, ‘one who enjoys free access to the ḥaram.’ Ḥāfiẓ calls the soul [Persian phrase omitted] (I. 178. 2).

[Persian word omitted]—[Persian letter omitted] + Arabic [Arabic word omitted]. The text is uncertain here. Perhaps we should read [Persian word omitted] and take [Persian phrase omitted] in its ordinary sense: to forgive. With [Persian word omitted], it must mean: to make common property, to desecrate. Notice the word-play; [Arabic word omitted] and [Arabic word omitted] are opposites in Arabic.

Cf. ib. I. 116. 4; I. 676. 3.

[Persian phrase omitted]—see XX. 1, note, and cf. Jāmī’s Bahāristān, p. 10, ll. 16–21; Ḥāfiẓ, II. 450. 6.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—the Turkmāns are a people of tent-dwellers: hence the metaphor.

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—literally, ‘I am harsh in a good cause, or affair.’ The use of the iẓāfat is remarkable; it seems to be imitated from the Arabic construction in cases like [Arabic phrase omitted] (Wright’s Arabic Grammar, Vol. II. p. 221). For the poet’s view of the probationary and corrective purpose of suffering—τῷ πάθει μάθος—cf. Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 90 seq., 114, 295.

9. [Persian name omitted]—see II. 14, note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—a type or manifestation of divine beauty.

[Persian phrase omitted]—the soul is identified with God. Cf. note on XVII. 11.

Poem XXIX

1. [Persian phrase omitted]—for the iẓāfat see VII. 7, note.

[Arabic word omitted]—‘come’ is perhaps an adequate rendering. Cf. Lane under [Arabic word omitted].

[Persian word omitted]—see XVI. 3, note. According to Kaempfer (Amoenitates Exoticae, p. 743 seq.) ‘[Persian phrase omitted], i.e. tympanum falconum, parvulum est, aeneum, in appendicem productum, reticuloque densissime munitum.’ He adds that it is carried by kings and nobles on the left side of their saddles.

4. [Persian word omitted]—this word has been erroneously connected with [Arabic word omitted], [Arabic word omitted], and σοφός. It is derived from [Arabic word omitted], wool. Cf. the phrase, [Arabic phrase omitted], he donned the wool, i.e. devoted himself to a monastic or contemplative life, and see the article ‘Ṣūfī’ by T. Nöldeke, Z.D.M.G., Vol. XLVIII. p. 45.

5. [Persian word omitted]—cf. Ḥāfiẓ, I. 184. 5:

7. [Persian phrase omitted], otherwise called [Persian phrase omitted] and [Persian word omitted], is the lowest part of the room, beyond the carpet, where visitors remove their shoes on entering; the least honourable place, where people of the humbler sort stand (Browne, J. R. A. S., 1895, p. 806). It is also a place of penance and humiliation. The darvīsh who has committed a fault must stand here on one foot, holding his left ear in his right hand, and his right ear in his left, until the Director ([Persian word omitted]) allows him to go. [Arabic phrase omitted] is contrasted with [Arabic phrase omitted] in a passage from the Kitābi Aqdas of Bahā ’ullāh (ib. p. 808).

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. 1 Corinthians, ch. xiii. 11: ‘When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.’ Commenting on this text Juan de la Cruz remarks (Subida del Monte Carmelo, p. 41): Objects of sense and the knowledge derived from them are the occupation of a child; and therefore, if the soul will attach itself to these and refuse to forsake them, it will never cease to be a little child, and it will always speak and think of God, as a child does, because, fixing its attention on the outward sensible husk, which is the child, it will never reach the spiritual essence, which is the perfect man. See also Law, The Spirit of Love, p. 140 (quoted in Characters and Characteristics of William Law by Alex. Whyte, D.D., p. 127).

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian word omitted], a sack, is used metaphorically to denote the human body.

12. [Persian phrase omitted]—on the day of judgement the righteous will receive the book, wherein their actions are recorded, in their right hand. Cf. Kor. XVII. 73; LXIX. 19–26; LXXXIV. 7–12.

Do thou take the scroll from my left hand and lay it in my right;Thou canst make the left right: thy servant would not be able.

(T. 59. 12ᵃ).

13. [Persian phrase omitted]—human reason (see IV. 10, note).

14. Observe the jingles: [Persian word omitted], spirit, [Persian word omitted], moving; [Persian word omitted], from Arabic [Arabic word omitted], and [Persian word omitted] from [Persian infinitive omitted]; [Persian word omitted] and [Persian word omitted].

Poem XXX

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—alluding to the ḥadīs̤: the heart of the believer is between the two (first and second) fingers of the Merciful; He turneth it wheresoever He pleaseth. Cf. Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 242 seq.

For [Persian word omitted] see XXVI. 9, note.

8. The mystic is alternately rapt to the shining heights of vision and plunged in the dark abyss of separation: these opposite states, resulting from the conflict of Being and Not-being, are to him what faith and infidelity are to common men. Cf. Sa‘dī, Gulistān, Book II. Story 9.

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—the bosom of the shirt serves as a pocket, and loose money is often carried in the sleeve.

Poem XXXI

(See a version in English: Dabistān, Vol. I. p. clxvi and in German: Von Hammer, Schöne Redekünste Persiens, p. 191. The original text does not occur in any of the editions or MSS. used by me.)

1. [Persian word omitted]—a Magian.

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. VIII. 4, note.

4. [Persian name omitted]—for ‘Bulgaria’ in the translation read ‘Bulghār.’ This town was situated on the Volga, about 100 miles south of Kazan (see Géographie d’Aboulféda by Reinaud and Guyard, Vol. II. Part I. p. 324 seq.; Mouradja D’Ohsson, Des Peuples du Caucase, p. 73).

[Persian name omitted]—there were two cities of this name, one on the borders of China, and the other, evidently referred to here, in the land of the Khazars, who occupied a vast and ill-defined territory, extending at different periods from the Crimea to the Caspian Sea (D’Ohsson, Des Peuples du Caucase, p. 190 seq.; Géographie d’Aboulféda, Vol. II. Part I. p. 286, and note 2; Qazvīnī, Kosmographie, ed. Wüstenfeld, Part II. p. 402).

[Persian word omitted]—the two ‘Irāqs, [Persian name omitted] and [Persian name omitted]. The former, also called Jibāl and Kūhistān, is the great central province of western Persia, and is bounded on the east by Khorāsān, on the north by Māzanderān, Ghīlān, and Adharbaijān, on the west by Ardīlān and Lūristān, on the south by Khūzistān and Fārsistān. ‘Irāqi ‘Arabī lies between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and stretches westward to the borders of the Syrian desert.

5. [Persian word omitted]—Greek παράδεισος (but see Lane under [Arabic word omitted]).

[Persian name omitted]—the angel who has the keys of Paradise.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—when every trace of finite existence is swept away, the Infinite remains.

8. [Arabic phrase omitted]—‘O He’ (Jahve, Jehovah), one of the most familiar darvīsh-cries.

[Arabic phrase omitted]—‘O He who is.’

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—spiritual rapture and ecstasy.

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—i.e. [Persian phrase omitted]. [Persian phrase omitted] = to come to hand, to accrue. The subject is [Persian word omitted].

[Persian word omitted]—here in its original meaning = [Persian word omitted]. For the sentiment cf. Ḥāfiẓ, I. 710. 4.

12. [Persian phrase omitted]—this may be translated: ‘I have no device.’

Poem XXXII

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—the celestial fire of love.

[Arabic name omitted]—‘Abdu’l ‘Uzzā, surnamed Abū Lahab (father of flame), was the uncle and bitter enemy of Mohammed, who denounced him as follows: ‘The hands of Abū Lahab shall perish and he shall perish. Neither his wealth shall profit him, nor what he hath gained. He shall enter into the flaming fire’ . See Kor. CXI. with Sale’s notes.

‘The soul resembles this window, in which is ever being reflected, or rather is dwelling, the divine light of the all-pervading presence of God’ (Juan de la Cruz, Subida del Monte Carmelo, p. 23).

For the exact signification of [Persian word omitted] see Gulistān, translated by Platts, p. 7, note.

4. [Persian word omitted]—V. 1, note.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—a term of endearment. So [Persian phrase omitted] (Ḥāfiẓ, II. 502. 1; 512. 7).

[Arabic word omitted]—properly, all who are not Arabs, then specially, the Persians. Cf. the double sense of βάρβαρος.

6. [Persian word omitted]—see Gulshani Rāz, 805 seq.

(T. 150. 4ᵃ).

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—VIII. 7, note.

[Arabic word omitted] is a difficult word to translate. Jurjānī (Kitābu’tta‘rīfāt, p. 14) defines it as ‘the knowledge by which one is guarded from committing any kind of fault.’ Cf. Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 52, l. 17; p. 104, l. 16; p. 159, l. 6; p. 320, l. 7.

Poem XXXIII

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—these words may also mean: ‘in whom shall I have hope again?’

Poem XXXIV

1. [Persian phrase omitted]—the human mind, by the necessity of its nature, cannot form any idea whatsoever except through the medium of symbols, images, and impressions. All these, whether sensual or spiritual, partake of Not-being, and therefore veil and obstruct the divine light. See on this subject Juan de la Cruz, Subida del Monte Carmelo, Bk. II. Ch. 12.

[Persian phrase omitted]—as regards the educative value of ‘forms’ cf. Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 76, p. 270. ‘Beholding in many souls the traits of the divine beauty, and separating in each soul that which is divine from the taint which it has contracted in the world, the lover ascends to the highest beauty, to the love and knowledge of the Divinity by steps on this ladder of created souls’ (Emerson).

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—the divine idea effaces all others and fills the soul. Cf. XIII. 13, note.

3. In what terms can I describe thee? As the spirit of love, or the foe of reason, or the destroyer of earthly imaginations?

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. XVIII. 3.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—every drop of my blood, that thou sheddest (cf. [Persian phrase omitted], III. 3), as it sinks into the earth proclaims its union with thee.

[Persian phrase omitted]—Unity is called a sea of blood (Gulshani Rāz, 499) ‘because of the continual annihilation in it of its waves, viz. phenomena and plurality.’

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—the body.

Poem XXXV

1. [Persian phrase omitted]—see IX. 14, note.

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—to renounce self ([Arabic word omitted]) and to travel abidingly in God ([Arabic word omitted]), which are the beginning and end of the mystical journey (see notes on XIX. 2 and 6; Gulshani Rāz, 307 seq.). In the Bahāristān (p. 15, l. 16 seq.) faith is defined as [Persian words omitted], i.e. ‘to sever the heart from created things and unite it with God.’

[Persian phrase omitted]—this miṣrā‘ allows of another interpretation, viz. ‘not to see your own eye,’ whence all objects derive their unreal existence.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—‘introrsum ascendere.’ [Persian word omitted] is the diminutive of [Persian word omitted].

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—X. 7, note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—use the language of mystics, speak in parables. For the allusion to Solomon see II. 6, note.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—in the presence of, and not yet separated from, the divine artificer. Cf. note on XVII. 10.

[Persian phrase omitted]—see XXXIV. 6, note. According to an ḥadīs̤, ‘He kneaded the clay of Adam forty days.’

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—the phenomenal world.

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—because the soul was reluctant to enter the world, and hated the body in which it was doomed to captivity.

[Persian phrase omitted]—this simile may have been suggested by the words [Persian phrase omitted]: the epithet [Persian phrase omitted], footless, is frequently applied to a ball. The personal suffix belongs to [Persian phrase omitted]. As regards the scansion of this miṣrā‘ see XI. 15, note.

Poem XXXVI

1. [Persian phrase omitted]—to decamp, to migrate.

2. [Persian word omitted]—the tashdīd is required by the metre. See notes on IX. 19, XXIII. 5.

[Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian phrase omitted] means: asking a person to make such and such a thing lawful to the asker, i.e., according to the context, either to give him permission to act in a certain manner, or to release him from all obligations which he may have incurred with respect to the person addressed. Here the camel-driver begs to be excused for having disturbed the travellers’ repose.

Prof. Bevan suggests that [Arabic word omitted] ([Arabic word omitted] pl. [Arabic word omitted]), which is found in one of the MSS., may be the correct reading. In this case we must imagine the saddle-cloths to have served as blankets; at dawn the sārbān comes to reclaim his property.

Why art thou not troubled by sleep and the cutpurse,Why art thou aggrieved by him who gives thee warning?He who troubles thee is thy shaikh and monitor,Saying, ‘The world’s dowry, like a reflection in water, has no permanence.’

(Probably [Persian phrase omitted], the worldly sun or the love of the world, is a better reading, on account of [Persian phrase omitted].)

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet XXI.: ‘those gold candles fixed in heaven’s air.’

(Henry Vaughan.)

[Persian word omitted]—adjectival, as in the phrase, [Persian phrase omitted].

5. [Persian phrase omitted]— (T. 62. 12ᵃ). [Persian phrase omitted] = [Persian phrase omitted] (Lakh. 29. 1).

[Persian phrase omitted]—‘our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.’ The same idea is developed in a passage of singular beauty (Mas̤navī, 385. 22; Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 217):^[290.1]

For the repetition of [Persian word omitted] to complete the rhyme, cf. VI. 4.

[Persian phrase omitted]—Cf. the analogous construction of [Persian word omitted] with a participle, XIII. 1, note.

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—this world is passing away and in its death-throes will bring forth the world without end.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—Cf. XII. 6–10; Paradise Lost, Bk. V. 479 seq.

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—in the sweet anguish of love, which ‘carries a Man out from himself, as insufficient to be his own Good, towards Good without him’ (Norris, Theory and Regulation of Love, p. 18).

Cf. ‘Omar’s rebuke to the Harper (Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 34).

11–13. These lines are addressed to the sober worldly man whose heart, devoid of warmth and sincerity, is satisfied with mere observance and ceremonial; who has nothing but contempt for raptures, ecstasies, and illuminations; to whom it is incredible that religion should ever rise to a passion or become an ‘affaire du cœur.’

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian word omitted] is (1) laughing-stock, (2) mocker. In my translation I have given it the former sense, but the second is equally appropriate. Cf. [Persian word omitted] below. [Persian word omitted] seems to be an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον.

[Persian word omitted]—[Persian word omitted] is the old Persian dahyāush (land, province). Like [Persian word omitted], it has lost in men’s mouths even the memory of its birthright.

14. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. Ḥāfiẓ, I. 276. 3:

15. [Persian phrase omitted]—the quietist is at peace with all men. Cf. XI. 8, note.

16. [Persian phrase omitted]—Man is the meeting-point of two worlds: on one side the baser elements of his nature attach him to the shows and apparitions of mortality, but in virtue of his ‘divine spark’ he passes beyond them into the spiritual universe, and knocks at the door of Being.

17. [Persian phrase omitted]—whose love is too deep for utterance. Cf. I. 18, note.

Poem XXXVII

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. IX. 20, note. God is foreign to the world, yet never absent from it, i.e. He at once transcends and pervades all phenomenal existence. Cf. Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 183, l. 2.

3. [Persian word omitted]—the participle is used adverbially.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—‘why defend your constancy by words, when you break it in deed?’ But I am inclined to believe that [Persian phrase omitted] here = [Persian infinitive omitted], trample under foot.

7. [Persian word omitted]—synonymous with [Persian phrase omitted] (XXIX. 7, note).

[Persian phrase omitted]—from the state of manifestation to that of occultation.

10. [Persian word omitted]—this reading, which involves a very slight change, is due to Prof. Bevan. [Persian word omitted], being comparatively a rare word, would readily become [Persian word omitted]: we may disregard the evidence of MSS. in such cases, where the ductus litterarum is identical, and the pointing rests, as is likely, on the caprice or hasty conjecture of the scribe.

[Persian phrase omitted]—yellow ([Persian word omitted]) is the hue of paleness in the East, as in Italy. Cf. saxum quoque palluit auro (Ovid, Metamorphoses, XI. 110), luridus, luteus pallor, etc.

My frenzied intoxicated camel (the soul)Began to rend reason’s tether.

(T. 140. 4).

i.e. if thou desirest that none who seek union with thee shall be hindered and trammelled in their search, why then dost thou make Reason no better than a blind guide?

15. [Persian phrase omitted]—viz. by withdrawing the light of thy countenance.

(Cf. the phrase, [Persian phrase omitted], to recover one’s senses.)

17. [Persian phrase omitted] and [Persian phrase omitted] occur frequently in poetry instead of the simple [Persian word omitted].

Poem XXXVIII

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—XXI. 6, note.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—our souls, united with the omnipresent deity, are no longer subject to the laws of Space and Time.

Poem XXXIX

1. [Persian word omitted]—the allusion in beyt 6 ([Persian phrase omitted]) points to Shamsi Tabrīz, and not another of the poet’s spiritual teachers.

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—the Keeper of the garden of created things, i.e. God.

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—this metaphor represents the soul as remembering her heavenly origin (XVII. 1, note), and scorning the world.

[Persian word omitted]—[Persian word omitted] would be contra metr. See note on XI. 15.

[Persian phrase omitted]—the earth, where all is fleeting and unsubstantial.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. IV. 8, note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—‘utterly consumed it.’ Cf. the English use (archaic or slang) of ‘clean’: e.g. clean gone out of mind.

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—these words are connected with [Persian phrase omitted] in beyt 5.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. IV. 7, note.

[Persian words omitted]—IV. ibid., XXVII. 8, note.

[Persian word omitted]—[Arabic word omitted] is found several times in the Kor’ān, but I do not think that the poet had any of these passages in his mind. Probably the reference here is to Kor. LXXXIX. 28, which is a favourite Ṣūfī text (see XXIX. 3, note).

^[298.1]

Spirits every night from the body’s snareThou freest, and makest the tablets clean (by erasing all sensual impressions).

Spirits are set free every night from this cage,Independent, neither ruled nor ruling.

At night prisoners forget their prison,At night kings forget their power.

There is no sorrow, no brooding over gain and loss,No thought of this person or that person.

This is the state of the mystic, even when he is awake:God hath said, “(Thou would’st deem them awake) while they slept^[299.1].” Flee not from this^[299.2].

He is asleep, day and night, to the affairs of the world,Like a pen in the controlling hand of the Lord^[299.3].

(Mas̤navī, 14. 4).

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—the world is regarded as a cube, and its six sides or faces are: before and behind, right and left, above and below.

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—this expression (in Arabic [Arabic phrase omitted]) is applied to one whose presence in a company creates embarrassment and checks the flow of conversation. The poet means to say that, while ‘self’ exists, the highest knowledge is unattainable.

12. [Persian phrase omitted]—the supernatural way of ‘illumination’ and ‘intuition.’ See XI. 5, note.

Poem XL

1. [Persian phrase omitted]—see XV. 2, note.

3. [Arabic phrase omitted]—Kor. XXII. 6.

5. [Persian word omitted]—drunken revelry. For the dropping of the tashdīd cf. IX. 19, note.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—each atom of Not-being reflects a divine attribute: the sum of these reflected rays of Being is ‘the perfect image’ of God.

Lāhījī says, ‘Absolute Being, [Arabic word omitted], by the individualisation, [Arabic word omitted], and phenomenalisation, [Arabic word omitted], which occur to it, gets the name of [Arabic word omitted], actual being, and therefore [Arabic word omitted] is a part of every [Arabic word omitted]; for [Arabic word omitted] is [Arabic word omitted] plus [Arabic word omitted]. Absolute Being, again, is greater than its whole because it contains all [Arabic word omitted]’ (ibid., Whinfield’s note).

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—be lowly and obedient. Cf. (R. 76. 12).

8. [Persian word omitted]—i.e. [Persian phrase omitted].

[Persian phrase omitted]—Reason is annihilated in the mystical union of the soul with God. [Persian phrase omitted] stands for [Persian phrase omitted]. Cf. [Persian phrase omitted] (T. 94. 3).

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. the phrases [Arabic phrases omitted] (Lane, under [Arabic word omitted]), and see note on [Arabic word omitted], II. 6.

For Ṣalāḥu’ddīn see II. 14, note.

Poem XLI

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian word omitted] is the Arabic [Arabic word omitted], the Roman plectrum.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—this musical mode, like the Dorian measure, has a solemn and grave character suitable to war and religion.

[Persian phrase omitted]—he sang ‘as mortal lovers do,’ but there was a deeper meaning in his words. Wine is an emblem of the Divinity. Cf. ‘Omar Khayyām, Quatrain 287:

5. [Persian word omitted]—here [Persian phrase omitted].

[Persian phrase omitted]—literally, ‘darts a tongue of flame.’

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian word omitted] is redundant in this construction, which is not uncommon.

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—most of the ‘nominal’ prepositions may be thus used, e.g. [Persian phrase omitted].

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—XXV. 11, note.

9. [Persian name omitted]—IV. 8, note.

Poem XLII

1. [Persian phrase omitted]—the interpretation of these words is doubtful. (1) [Arabic word omitted] means ‘the community or brotherhood of saints and spiritual men.’ Cf. Nafaḥātu ’l Uns, p. 206, l. 5: ‘Associate with God, or if ye cannot, with those who are the associates of God, in order that the blessing of their society may lead you to him.’ Jalālu’ddīn gives the same advice in the Mas̤navī (22. 4; Redhouse, p. 53, l. 412):^[303.1]

For the [Arabic word omitted] of Mohammedan Theology = ‘consensus of opinion in the Church,’ see Dozy, Supplément aux Dictionnaires Arabes, under [Arabic word omitted]. Naturally Jalālu’ddīn, in his condemnation of schism, is not speaking as one of the orthodox.

[Persian phrase omitted]—the tavern signifies God. Cf. Gulshani Rāz, 839 seq.

[Persian word omitted]—like [Persian word omitted] (XL. 4), those who drain to the lees the cup of celestial love.

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—cave ne fias. [Persian word omitted] and [Persian word omitted] (XXXIV. 4) are lightened ([Persian word omitted]) forms of [Persian word omitted].

[Persian phrase omitted]—see XI. 5, note.

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—this may also mean: ‘be open-handed, sacrifice all that you have.’ Cf. note on [Persian word omitted] (XXIX. 5).

[Persian phrase omitted]—destroy ‘self,’ which veils you from God.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—for this construction see XLI. 6, note, and for the meaning of [Persian word omitted], XIII. 6, note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—cf. XVI. 7, note.

5. [Persian word omitted]—Virgil’s ‘soporiferum papaver.’

[Persian phrase omitted]—the fragrant lips of the Beloved. Food and sleep produce spiritual lethargy.

6. [Persian word omitted]—cf. III. 7, note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian word omitted], like circulus in Latin, denotes any company for social and convivial intercourse. Here it may refer to the mystic dance ([Arabic word omitted]). Cf. Brown’s Dervishes, p. 225: ‘They (the Mevlevees) commence by forming a circle, seated on sheep-skins spread on the floor at equal distances from each other; they remain nearly a half-hour in this position, the arms folded, the eyes closed, the head inclined, and absorbed in profound meditation.’

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. (T. 241. 9).

For [Persian word omitted] used of God cf. VI. 8.

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—Kor. IV. 99: Was not God’s earth wide enough that ye might take refuge therein? [Persian word omitted] = notwithstanding (XI. 3, note).

[Persian phrase omitted]—why are you fast asleep in the chains of sense and worldly illusion? See note on XXXVI. 4.

This rendering brings out more clearly the double contrast of [Persian word omitted] with [Persian word omitted], and of [Persian word omitted] (opinion) with [Persian word omitted] (actual vision).

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—like the Arabic [Arabic phrase omitted].

Poem XLIII

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—VII. 1, note.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. IV. 7; XXVII. 8; XXXIX. 8. The base phenomenal alloy, which enters into the composition of every creature, is purified and spiritualised by love, as was Moses, when God revealed himself in glory to Mt Sinai and made it dust, and Moses fell in a swoon (Kor. VII. 139).

[Persian phrase omitted]—Qārūn (Korah) points to Mohammedans the moral of riches that ‘grow in hell’ and pride that goeth before destruction. See Kor. XXVIII. 76–81, with Sale’s notes.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—your adoration is fixed on something external, whereas that which you seek is, in reality, your better self. Cf. the notes on XVII. 11, XXVI. 1.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—you are the mirror of divine beauty—and you turn away from the mirror! Cf. Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 48 seq.

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

[Persian phrase omitted]—‘divinae particula aurae,’ Eckhart’s ‘funkelin der sêle.’ See Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics, Vol. I. p. 147.

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—the soul, being the house of God ([Arabic phrase omitted]), is the Ka‘ba to which Ṣūfīs make their pilgrimage.

[Persian phrase omitted]—it is not helplessness, but stupid obstinacy, that prevents you from travelling towards the Truth.

11. [Persian phrase omitted] = [Persian phrase omitted]. For this personal use of [Persian word omitted] cf. Dozy, Supplément aux Dictionnaires Arabes, under [Arabic word omitted].

Poem XLIV

2. [Persian phrase omitted]—the soul, before she entered the world, enjoyed intimate union with God. See XVII. 1, note.

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. XIX. 1–6.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. Kor. LIV. 55: (the pious shall dwell) in an assembly of Truth. [Arabic word omitted] conveys the idea of perfect friendship and devotion. It is defined by Junaid as ‘freedom from shyness ([Arabic word omitted]) without loss of reverence’ ([Arabic word omitted]); by Dhū’l Nūn as ‘absence of reserve between lover and beloved’ ([Arabic phrase omitted]); by Ruwaim (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 107, l. 12 seq.), as ‘holding aloof from all but God, even from yourself’; and by Muḥiyyu’ddīn Ibnu’l ‘Arabī (Kitābu’tta‘rīfāt, p. 287), as ‘the effect produced in the heart by contemplation of the divine beauty.’

Cf. Gulshani Rāz, 195; Ḥāfiẓ, I. 324. 6; and note on [Persian word omitted], IX. 14.

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—the senses are to the heart as outward observance to deep spiritual faith. For the five daily prayers performed by Moslems see Sale’s Preliminary Discourse, p. 147 seq.; Lane’s Arabian Nights, Vol. I. p. 18 seq. The parallel between the five senses and the five prayers corresponds to that between the seven divisions of the heart (see Vullers under [Persian phrase omitted]) and the seven verses of Al Fātiḥa (note on VI. 5; Nöldeke’s Sketches from Eastern History, p. 38).

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—the glimmering contingent universe melts away and vanishes in the full glory of Being.

[Persian phrase omitted]—Canopus rises in the south; hence the allusion to

[Persian phrase omitted]—the south-west corner of the Ka‘ba. Burckhardt says south-east, but this is a mistake (see the Plan in Burton’s Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, Vol. III. p. 288).

12. [Persian word omitted] is said to mean ‘escaping from self by vision of God’ (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 472, l. 11).

13. [Persian phrase omitted]—keep silence concerning the high mysteries of love, which are revealed only to those far advanced on the spiritual path ([Persian words omitted]).

[Persian phrase omitted]—‘do thou, who art less divinely gifted, learn obedience’ ([Arabic word omitted]). This is the first lesson, and also the last; therefore even the perfect man must not linger in the state of [Arabic word omitted], but throw off his intoxication and comply with the law. See Gulshani Rāz, 347–368.

Poem XLV

2. [Persian word omitted]—the pure gold of the spirit.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—[Arabic word omitted] (plural of [Arabic word omitted]) signifies ‘the different points of the horizon, from whence the sun rises in the course of the year’ (Sale’s Kor’ān, Vol. II. p. 309, note).

5. [Persian word omitted]—the sleep of phenomenal existence. See XXXVI. 5, note.

[Persian word omitted]—[Persian word omitted], literally, a dweller, is mostly used with a negative, and seldom occurs in Persian except in the phrase [Persian phrase omitted], there is no one.

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—the ‘intelligentiae oculus’ described by Richard of St Victor (Vaughan’s Hours with the Mystics, Vol. I. p. 128). Cf. XI. 5, note.

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—probably [Persian word omitted] here means ‘honey’ (cf. [Persian word omitted]), or ‘date-syrup’ ([Arabic word omitted]). The name [Arabic word omitted] is given to a sort of dried curds, which the Arabs drink melted in water, but this beverage, although ‘cooling and refreshing’ is ‘vile-tasted’ and ‘boasts few attractions to the stranger’ (Burton, Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, Vol. I. p. 362). The only meaning of [Arabic word omitted] recognised by the dictionaries, viz. ‘article of faith,’ ‘doctrine,’ is inappropriate: the poet obviously contrasts [Persian word omitted] with [Persian word omitted] and [Persian word omitted], as the sweet fruits of the spirit with the bitter gall of worldly lusts.

10. [Persian word omitted]—buried in the dark attributes of Not-being. Cf. note on [Persian word omitted], XXXVI. 13.

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. XLII. 7, and note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—a compound adjective = ‘born under a happy star.’ [Persian word omitted] means (a) the planet Jupiter, (b) purchaser ([Persian word omitted]).

14. [Persian phrase omitted]—I have rendered [Persian word omitted] by ‘hand,’ in order to show the symmetry of this line with the two preceding it.

Poem XLVI

1. [Persian word omitted]—such as dogmatic theologians and rationalising philosophers. Cf. XXXVI. 11, note.

2. [Persian word omitted]—see Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 70.

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—if you destroy the earthly chrysalis.

4. [Persian phrase omitted] = [Persian word omitted].

([Persian word omitted] refers to the sound caused by crushing the shell.)

6. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. Ḥāfiẓ, II. 254. 3:

7. [Persian phrase omitted]—Man, during his phenomenal extrusion, is a homeless vagabond in the world. Cf. Gulshani Rāz, 281, and note.

[Persian words omitted]—[Persian word omitted] is either ‘die’ (as numerus in Latin poetry), or ‘piece,’ which gives a better sense.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian word omitted] sometimes = [Persian word omitted], but here, I think, = [Persian phrase omitted], the atoms floating in a sunbeam, with an allusion to Shamsi Tabrīz.

Poem XLVII

Similar phrases are [Persian phrase omitted] and [Persian phrase omitted].

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—see notes on IV. 2, XXIII. 7.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. Mas̤navī, 8. 2; Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 7:

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. [Persian word omitted] = [Persian word omitted].

If [Persian word omitted] is addressed to the reader, the change of person, though harsh, is not unexampled. It may, however, denote the Beloved, whom the poet upbraids for having forsaken him.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—XV. 12, note.

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—of flesh and spirit, Not-being and Real Being.

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—Kor. XV. 29: (God said to the angels:) When therefore I shall have completed him (Adam) and breathed of my spirit into him, do ye fall and worship him. [Arabic word omitted] is probably used here of the reasonable soul ([Arabic phrase omitted]). See Gulshani Rāz, 318 and note, 493.

12. [Persian phrase omitted]—when Man reflects of what he was created, and what, by gradual evolution, he has become, can he doubt the ultimate reality of his deepest aspirations, wild and impracticable as they seem at present? See XII. 6–10, and note, XVIII. 1, note, Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, pp. 216, 231, Gulshani Rāz, 317–338.

13. [Persian word omitted]—Greek κλείς (κλειδ-), Arabic [Arabic word omitted]. The ‘key’ is Love.

Poem XLVIII

2. [Persian word omitted]—Latin capsa or capsus (Nöldeke, Persische Studien, p. 38; Fraenkel, Die Aramäischen Fremdwörter, p. 118). As s in loan-words may be represented either by [Persian letter omitted] or [Persian letter omitted], the form [Persian word omitted] is equally correct.

3. [Persian phrase omitted]—the story of the ‘white falcon,’ whose beak and claws were cut by a ‘vile old woman’ ([Persian phrase omitted]), is told in the Mas̤navī, 362. 18 seq.; Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 203. For the allegory cf. X. 7, note, XLII. 4, note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—see notes on XVI. 3, XXIX. 3.

4. [Persian phrase omitted]—I cannot find this in the Mas̤navī. But cf. the tale of the Falcon and the Owls (ibid. 126. 13; Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 76).

5. [Persian phrase omitted]—XIII. 8, note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—XLII. 1, note.

8. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. IV. 8. He who is eternally glorified by union with the source of all light, desires no earthly crown.

[Persian words omitted]—one meaning of [Persian word omitted] is ‘waist.’ [Persian phrase omitted] = e medio abire (to die).

9. [Persian phrase omitted]—obliquis oculis, enviously.

[Persian phrase omitted]—you look back with regret on the life of your individual soul, which is now exalted above life.

10. [Persian phrase omitted]—cf. the saying, I went forth to seek the bounty of God (Lane under [Arabic word omitted]). [Arabic word omitted] is the plural of [Arabic word omitted], which, as applied to God, means ‘requital,’ ‘recompense.’ [Arabic word omitted], the Giver of rewards, is a possible reading.

[Persian phrase omitted]—i.e. with hope and fear. According to the Ṣūfīs, [Arabic phrase omitted] (Būstān, p. 31, last line).

[Persian phrase omitted]—[Persian phrase omitted] is followed by [Persian word omitted] (suggesting [Persian word omitted], [Persian word omitted]), which leads up to [Persian word omitted]. These trifles would hardly be worth notice, if they did not illustrate the artificial character even of the best Persian poetry.

[Persian phrase omitted]—this strange metaphor may perhaps allude to the sport of hunting the antelope with hawks. ‘The buck is seldom taken. The Arabs, are, indeed, afraid to fly their hawks at the latter, as these fine birds, in pouncing, frequently impale themselves on its sharp horns’ (Malcolm, Sketches of Persia, p. 54).

11. [Persian phrase omitted]—all things tremble and flee before the wind of death; only the soul, conscious of immortality, remains unmoved and triumphant.

13. [Persian words omitted]—see XLII. 11, note.

[Persian phrase omitted]—speech is finite, silence infinite.

[Persian word omitted]—the soul, waking from the dark night of the world, enjoys eternal day in the bosom of God. Cf. XXXVI. 5, note.

Footnotes