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1
2174-2198

  • When it became certain to him that none was there except the old man, he said, “Many an illumined heart is (to be found) in darkness.”
  • He came and sat down there (beside him) with a hundred marks of respect. ‘Umar happened to sneeze, and the old man sprang to his feet. 2175
  • He saw ‘Umar and stood fixed in amazement: he resolved to go and began to tremble (with fear).
  • He said within himself, “O God, help, I beseech thee! The Inspector has fallen upon a poor old harper.”
  • When ‘Umar looked on the old man's countenance, he saw him ashamed and pale.
  • Then ‘Umar said to him, “Fear not, do not flee from me, for I have brought thee glad tidings from God.
  • How often has God praised thy disposition, so that He has made ‘Umar in love with thy face! 2180
  • Sit down beside me and do not make separation (between us), that I may say into thine ear the secret (message) from (the Divine) favour.
  • God sends thee greeting and asks thee how thou farest in thy distress and boundless sorrows.
  • Lo, here are some pieces of gold to pay for silk. Spend them and come back to this place.”
  • The old man trembled when he heard this, biting his hand and quivering all over,
  • Crying, “O God who hast no like!” inasmuch as the poor old man was melted with shame. 2185
  • After he had wept long and his grief had gone beyond (all) bounds, he dashed his harp on the earth and broke it to bits.
  • He said, “O thou (harp) that hast been to me a curtain (debarring me) from God, O thou (that hast been) to me a brigand (cutting me off) from the King's highway,
  • O thou that hast drunk my blood for seventy years, O thou because of whom my face is black (disgraced) before (the Divine) perfection!
  • Have mercy, O bounteous God who keepest faith, on a life passed in iniquity!
  • God gave (me) a life, the value of every single day whereof none in the world can know. 2190
  • I have spent my life, breath by breath: I have breathed it all away in treble and bass.
  • Ah me, that in minding the (musical) mode and rhythm of ‘Iráq the bitter moment of parting (from this world) went out of my mind (was forgotten).
  • Alas that from the liquid freshness of the minor zírafgand the seed sown in my heart dried up, and my heart died.
  • Alas that from (my preoccupation with) the sound of these four-and-twenty (melodies) the caravan passed and the day grew late.”
  • O God, help (me) against this (self of mine) that is seeking help (from Thee): I seek justice (redress) from no one (else, but only) from this justice-seeking (self). 2195
  • I shall not get justice for myself from any one except, surely, from Him who is nearer to me than I;
  • For this “I-hood” comes to me from Him moment by moment: therefore when this has failed me, I see (only) Him,
  • As (when you are with) one who is counting out gold to you, you keep your gaze (directed) towards him, not towards yourself.
  • How ‘Umar, may God be well-pleased with him, bade him (the harper) turn his gaze from the stage of weeping, which is (self-) existence, to the stage of absorption (in God).