Divân-ı Kebir
CVIII
My beloved was walking in the garden yesterday, and was saying, ‘O greenery,’ and there are hundreds who have been drawn to her, but look and see, is there anyone like me?
Why did I say this? Why don’t you ask me about this event? We said: My questions are not suitable for ears, nor do they reach the mouth.
Leave asking, but I said, better to keep the secret of telling it. The heart burns from your secret telling, from your hints, from your signs, and the body also.
I asked, how are you with the journey, what world are you in with the travel? She said, like the moon, shining, beautiful, with a pleasant gaze, moving around in her own surroundings.
To move around in one’s own surroundings is a mistake, but it is suitable for the mile, because she is on a journey in her homeland, walking while standing.
Even the caravan leader, the king of kings, has become drunk, and the camels also. O caravan leader, do not stay in any place other than my beloved’s land.
O our sign, our grace, O our origin, our beginning. Now, how will Hasan’s soul, or Abu’l Hasan, know our secret?
O my soul’s love, resembling the sun in the Hamel constellation, O my eye’s height, my face, my eye, the flowing water in Yemen.
Even if those who have passed and those who will come and those who are coming gather together in the resurrection, in that gathering there will still be none more beautiful than you.
If Mecnun saw your face, he would forget Leylâ, and if Leylâ saw Mecnun, she would fall into sorrow and misfortune.
Mevlânâ
You are searching for me, but there are many thorns on the foot of the rose. The separation is the jasmine, woe is my woe, I keep saying.
If the sun of your face does not give us our sustenance, would all the particles in the two worlds ever open their mouths and ask for anything?
When an animal is sacrificed, its soul leaves its body, and its pieces are revived again from this side.
Fire tells these pieces about eternal life, O soul saved from the lost, O soul that will not suffer harm.
These pieces also cry out, ‘If only our nation knew, if only they understood,’ and if their cries were heard, what pride or blasphemy would remain?
No fear would remain in any heart, no thorn on the foot of a rose. You also say, ‘Lebbeyk, lebbeyk,’ yes, and walk until you reach your homeland –
This saying has an end that will be spoken behind the veil of thirst, but if a waiter appears and takes us away from ourselves, we will speak.
Divân-ı Kebir
CIX
My beloved was walking in the garden yesterday, and was saying, ‘O greenery,’ and there are hundreds who have been drawn to her, but look and see, is there anyone like me?
You do not know the value of my lip. You have fought with me, and look, you have burned me so much that everyone is now in awe of me,
O one who causes strife, who pours fire upon the people, who suspends every heart with a hidden rope from the sky.
In the pure, clear sea, the whole world is garbage; the soul of the man and the woman’s soul and heart are playing in your sea.
From the dome of the sky, you have lit many candles; from the city of the soul and the city of the body, you have made many forms.
O beautiful one, without whose face all realities are mere imagination; if you are not there, the soul in my body turns into a dead person wrapped in a shroud,
O my eye, see something without the shining light of that one. O my soul, walk without the soul that gives life to souls, do not struggle for life.
I said: Why don’t you ask us about this event? We said, our questions are not suitable for ears, nor do they reach the mouth.
O one who mistakes the shadow of the beloved for the beloved, O one who has not distinguished the body from the shirt for years.
Your soul, which is confined to limits and numbers, has united with that boundless, numberless soul, and now your soul cannot fit into your body, just as a candle cannot be covered with a lampshade.
Mevlânâ
CX
Do not go away from us, but do not leave our people. O moon, do not break up the gathering of the Ülker stars, do not do this.
You are filled with lights and fires, but we are like the night behind you; wherever you stay, we come there, do not do this.
O sun of the Hamel constellation, the gardens and orchards have dressed in clothes through your grace and generosity; yet without you, winter had left them in wounds and weakness, do not do this.
O sun that has been cut off from us, we follow you like shadows; O father, without your grace, we remain alone, do not look away from us.
Divân-ı Kebir
CXI
Love came later but is superior to the previous ones, surpassing those loves; God wrote, ‘Those who come later have advanced.’
Its seal is adorned with the verse, ‘Indeed, we have opened,’ written in gold; its figures emerged from the blue sea of life.
Adam came again and took the throne of religion. The heads of those who were informed by the verse, ‘We stood in rows,’ bowed in the prayer of gratitude.
What is Rostam, then, among the ranks of lovers? Every day, lovers drive their black, white horses through the sea of blood. |
Because of that voice, that loudness, hundreds of severed heads are playing and laughing in the sea of blood, saying, “Indeed, we will turn back and reach him,” while swimming.
If the shadow of a lover falls on a mountain made of stone, even that will leap from its place; nine heavens, a hundred times, it is true, and one will start to say, “I believe.” If you do not believe, try it and see.
The light struck the mountain; listen to the noise on the mountain; it is already a poor mountain. Who is that, then, in a position where even Musa is a liar?
Even the sky is a rather big staircase before Musa; where is the sky, where is the rope? Where is the soul, where is the lowly world?
Sun, you are a golden plate; your pot is heated by God, your meal is cooked by God; you were once a person who was desired, now you are the one who desires.
It was told, it grew leaves this year, it started from the ground, it grew tall, it is reciting a spell for itself.
Mevlânâ
The soul became drunk with the cup it offered; hey, what a beautiful cup, what a pleasant vessel; such a vessel that even the dome of the sky has come down to bow to it. |
O Shems of Tabriz, O beautiful one, envied by the garden of Irem and the paradise garden, you began to play my lute with your grace and mercy, and I was struck by a spirit in the realm of love.
Divân-ı Kebir
CXII
I saw a thief, taking the people’s property: he was calm; but our thief, how is it that he also steals and exceeds?
If a thief goes too far in theft, he asks for help from the sultan; but if the sultan starts to steal, from whom will they ask for mercy?
Love is the sultan who steals the hearts of all thieves; thus, God takes all the drunkards by the hair and brings them before that
drunkard.
Love is the sultan who steals the hearts of the poets; look at the temple of that thief, and see how many poets there are.
Last night, O sleepers, I cried out, “A thief has come!” and immediately he took my tongue from my mouth.
I said, “I will tie his hands,” but he tied my hands; I said, “I will take him to prison,” but he does not even fit in this world.
Because of the taste and salt of his theft, every guard has become a thief; because of his trickery and order, every wise person has disappeared, become invisible.
I saw a group of people gathered in the middle of the night, asking, “Where is that thief?” asking where that thief is, but he is not there among them,
O source of every word, O foundation of every word, O one who appears like an enemy, O one who puts on the face of a friend, O one who is both eternal life and a sudden calamity that cuts off,
O one who walks with the blood of your heart, may your heart be pure; strike me, wound me, do not give up wounding me, truly I do not want mercy from you,
Stretch your bow kindly, shoot that beautiful arrow at me, I will sacrifice myself to the arrow, O beloved, I will be your slave and servant.
Mevlânâ
The wound you opened in my veins is my soul to me, it gives me life; yet, in this case, it is a tragedy that your body is cut by a sword, O ruler of the world.
Where is the throat of Ismail that would thank the dagger, where is Circis that would give up its life every moment because of your wounds.
Our sultan, Shems of Tabriz, may return from his journey; indeed, there were only a few people like him among all humans, he has gone, like Zümrüdüanka, completely disappeared, not even a trace of his dust remains.
Divân-ı Kebir
CXIII
This is the understanding of these infidels, this is the reward of those who endure patience; this is the resurrection of those who lie in the dust and earth, what a beautiful hope, what a beautiful helper. |
Hundreds of suns have seen your face, your beauty, and have been ashamed. The sun, when it enters the constellation of Sünbüle (the Scorpion), you have started your work, your strength; as for the heart: it is shouting in the sky, “Be clear, be known.”
In every journey, there is a voice, O pure spirit, O mercy for the worlds, coming from the lofty angels in the sky.
When a gate opens from the imprisoned truths, when a freshness and brightness comes to the gardens of the rose, when a news of subtle, hard-to-know things comes before the day of resurrection.
O soul, set a trap with your eyes, if you have no eyes, borrow some eyes; O soul, call everyone, seek every remedy, and jump, escape from this water, from this earth.
O soul, are you lazy? You are a lion who has fought great battles, you must break the ranks and take that strong castle.
Hurry, O beloved, O lover, hear our prayer, grant our request, let your voice be heard; if the beloved has hidden, if he is not visible, look carefully and see, for the soul is going to him.
Soul with talents, when I am submerged in the sea of blood, with whom have I sat, with whom have I fallen and risen, saying, “If only my people knew.”
Says: O my soul, I am going to the sea; O my spirit, I am casting my net to the sky; O the learned one, I am reaching the scriptures, now I shall either become a crown or a ring.
He who finds this mind, this understanding cannot be contained by the number, he tastes the sugar from the cane, and like Musa, he makes the rock pour forth pure water.
Mevlânâ
Since I have become drunk, let me leap, let me mount the heart as a steed; for the sultan has a longing for that particular month which is superior to all the months.
Leave this saying, my dear; speaking is a curtain before the vision; if you are to drink wine, drink that wine; if you are to choose a wine, choose that wine.
It is better to remain silent, watching and waiting, for there is a torment in the length of the speech; help has come, help has come, O Muslims, ask for help.
Mustaf’ilün mustaf’ilün, O great one, O drunkard, whether we sit or stand, whether we rise and walk, there is nothing closer to us than our own hearts’ veins.
Divân-ı Kebir
CXIV
Let the tef be played, let the tef be played, for you will reach the state; O companion of the man and the woman, act accordingly, do not grieve.
Give strength, take strength, O man who deals in trade; leave it, leave it, take a step towards absolute blackness.
If you say my honor is decreasing, do not fear, for it will give you hundreds of honors; your life will revive, and you will be freed from the sin of entering the grave, and from the sin of needing the grave-digger.
You have come drunk today, O my beloved, you have struck your heart against your heart; now, O lamp of the soul, shine, illuminate all around, now, you have been freed from the sin of hiding under the trough.
I have set fire to this robe, I have passed through the people’s acceptance and rejection; announce: Let Abu Alâ be cold towards me, let him not like me; let Abu Hasan be angry with me.
Why have you, O son of the people, fallen after the pursuit of benefit? Pursuing benefit is a disgrace, it disgraces a man; especially if a person hopes for something from the beauty of Huten…
May hundreds of lives be sacrificed for my beloved, may my crown and my turban be sacrificed for him; if I enter the kitchen with him, even paradise will envy that kitchen.
That kitchen becomes a garden of roses, the dust and ashes are swept away, it turns into the nature of my beloved, taking on such a state that it is impossible to describe, it surpasses all description.
Let me obey my beloved’s command and be silent; let me close my mouth; let me play like a rope, swaying with the breeze of that rope.
Mevlânâ
CXV
“Terci-i Bend”
I knew nothing, it never occurred to me that the Moon would descend to the earth in a certain shape; its beauty would burn all the beauties of the jinn in fire.
Could it ever occur to the minds that the male lion would run from the forests and immerse all the lovers in such kinds of blood?
O heart, I said to my heart, you have once again made your lungs’ blood turbid; be silent, be silent, come once again and see his face.
Shall I speak of his face, or his nature? Shall I praise the sweat on his forehead, or his hair? Shall I strike the words from his drunken eyes, or shall I speak of his cheek, his brow?
In any case, I am a devotee of him, I am drunk on that wine, I have been shattered by him on the ground; from night until the time of dawn, I say “O Allah,” and I cry out, “O Muslims, come to our aid!”
Where is the paper? I will make a picture as bright as the face of that beauty, similar to the sun, and I will throw this water and earth’s lady into the fire, let her reflection shine.
The earth has turned its face to the sky because of separation, but the sky says, “I am your face, O my beloved.”
A hidden homeland is given to both of you, O lovers, O unfortunate ones, here, in this very place, the answer comes as a blessing.
The state has collapsed, the lover’s path has been blocked, but the state has given him a torch with full vision and has come as a guide.
With these trustworthy walls, the secret in the hearts of every good and every bad person has come out, just like on the day of judgment today.
Could the heart that has given its trust to our stream ever be thirsty? Could the gate of the treasure ever be closed for the one who is sure?
O garden, you have endured, you have been patient, and the clouds have come upon you; O true patient ones, patience is the key to hardship and distress.
Is this month the sun of the world, or has it come from the sky? Its love is like life, like a cry; let me hide it.
Let me hide it so that life may taste it alone. Let the tef hold it in its ear and pull it out from behind the curtains.
Mustafa, why are you independent of us before God? Speak now, what are all these things, these conditions in the people, what was the wisdom in this creation?
God said: O soul of the universe, I was a hidden treasure; I wanted the emergence of that gift, that tribute.
I created a mirror whose back is the earth and whose face is the sky. If it is freed from showing off and from the display, its back becomes even better, even more beautiful than its face.
If the grape wishes to become wine, it must at one time remain in the press, boil, and foam. If one wishes to become a face, the back must be crushed and flattened.
Toprakla eş olan su, beğenilir bir ayna olur mu hiç? Fakat topraktan ayrıldı mı berrak bir ayna kesilir.
Bedenden uçan cana da padişahım, gel der, kötü dosttan ayrıldın, benim dostumsun şimdi sen.
Bu meşhurdur, bakır, kimyagerin muamelesiyle altın olur; bu bulunmaz kimya bakırı altın eder.
Bu güneş, Tanrı vergisiyle zengindir, ne taç ister, ne elbise; yüzlerce kele külâh olur o, her çıplağa elbise.
İsa, gönül alçaklığı göstermek için eşeğe bindi, yoksa seher yeli hiç eşeğe biner mi?