Divine Knowledge...

"Then that moon

Whose face shone like the sun,

Seeing I had cast hope away,

Filled a goblet of Divine Knowledge

And, passing to me, bade me drink,

Saying, 'With this wine,

Tasteless and odourless,

Wash away the writing

On thy being's tablet.'

Intoxicated from the pure draught

Which I had drained to the dregs,

In the bare dust I fell.


Since then I know not if I exist or not,

But I am not sober, neither am I ill or drunken.

Sometimes, like His eye, I am full of joy,

Or, like His curl, I am waving;

Sometimes, alas! from habit or nature,

I am lying on a dust heap.

Sometimes, at a glance from Him,

I am back in the Rose Garden."

..........

Mahmoud Shabistari
The Secret Rose Garden of Sa'd Ud Din Mahmud Shabistari
Translated by Florence Lederer [1920] p. 90