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5
3828-3877

  • The sword is that (same) sword, the man is not that (same) man; but this appearance (of identity) is a cause of bewilderment to you.
  • When the soul is transformed, this sword, namely, the body, remains in the hand of (is wielded by) the action of the Beneficent (God).
  • The one (whose fleshly soul is dead) is a man whose food is entirely (Divine) love; the other is a man hollow as dust. 3830
  • How an informer described a girl and exhibited the picture of her on paper, and how the Caliph of Egypt fell in love with it and sent an Amír with a mighty army to the gates of Mawsil (Mosul) and made great slaughter and devastation for the purpose (of obtaining the girl).
  • An informer said to the Caliph of Egypt, “The King of Mawsil is wedded to a houri.
  • He holds in his arms a girl like whom there is no (other) beauty in the world.
  • She does not admit of description, for her loveliness is beyond (all) limits: here is her portrait on paper.”
  • When the Emperor saw the portrait on the paper, he became distraught and the cup dropped from his hand.
  • Immediately he despatched to Mawsil a captain with a very mighty army, 3835
  • Saying, “If he will not give up that moon (beauty) to thee, rase his court and palace to the ground;
  • But if he give her up, leave him alone and bring the moon (hither), that on the earth I may embrace the moon.”
  • The captain set out towards Mawsil with his retinue and with thousands of heroes and drums and banners.
  • (With an army) like innumerable locusts (gathered) round the crops, he resolved to destroy the inhabitants of the city.
  • On every side he brought into hostile action a mangonel (ballista) like Mount Qáf. 3840
  • Wounds (were inflicted) by arrows and by stones from the mangonel; swords (flashed) amidst the dust, like lightning from a lightning-cloud.
  • During a (whole) week he wrought such carnage in hot fight: stone towers became unsteady as soft wax.
  • The King of Mawsil saw the terrible combat: then (at last) he sent an envoy from within (the city) to him (the captain),
  • To say, “What do you wish (to obtain) by shedding the blood of true believers? They are being killed in this grievous war.
  • If your object is to gain possession of the city of Mawsil, look now, it is achieved without (any more) bloodshed like this. 3845
  • I will go forth from the city: here it is for you, enter in, lest the blood of the oppressed lay hold of you (and demand vengeance);
  • And if your object is riches and gold and jewels, this is even more easy than to take possession of the city.”
  • How the lord of Mawsil surrendered the girl to the Caliph in order that there might be no more shedding of Moslem blood.
  • When the envoy came to the captain, he (the captain) gave him the paper on which the features (of the girl) were depicted,
  • (Saying), “Look on the paper: this (is what) I require. Hark, give (her up), or else (I will take her by force, for) I am the conqueror.”
  • On the return of the envoy, that manly King said, “Take no account of a (mere) form, lead her away at once. 3850
  • I am not an idolater in the epoch of the true Faith: ’tis more fit that the idol should be in the hands of the idolater.”
  • When the envoy brought her (to him), the captain straightway fell in love with her beauty.
  • Love is an (infinite) ocean, on which the heavens are (but) a flake of foam: (they are distraught) like Zalíkhá in desire for a Joseph.
  • Know that the wheeling heavens are turned by waves of Love: were it not for Love, the world would be frozen (inanimate).
  • How would an inorganic thing disappear (by change) into a plant? How would vegetive things sacrifice themselves to become (endowed with) spirit? 3855
  • How would the spirit sacrifice itself for the sake of that Breath by the waft whereof a Mary was made pregnant?
  • Each one (of them) would be (as) stiff and immovable as ice: how should they be flying and seeking like locusts?
  • Every mote is in love with that Perfection and hastening upward like a sapling.
  • Their haste is (saying implicitly) “Glory to God!” They are purifying the body for the sake of the spirit.
  • The captain deemed (what was really) a pit to be like a (safe) road: to him the sterile soil appeared goodly, (so) he sowed seed (in it). 3860
  • Dormiens cum (aliquis) simulacrum (amatae) in somnio videret, cum eo coivit et aqua (seminis) effusa est. [When the sleeper saw an image (of her) in a dream, he coupled with it and (seminal) fluid flowed from him.]
  • Postquam somnium abscessit et ipse extemplo experrectus est, sensit illam pupam sibi jam vigilanti coram non adesse. [When the dream departed and he woke up at once, he saw that that doll was not (present) in wakefulness.]
  • Dixit: “Eheu, aquam meam nihilo ingessi; eheu, dolosi illius (simulacri) dolum expertus sum.” [He said: “Alas! I have borne my fluid (sperm) for nothing. Alas! I have swallowed the coquetry of that artful schemer (image).]
  • Fuit ille dux (nonnisi) corporis imperator, revera vir non fuit: virilatis semen in ejusmodi arena sevit. [That one was a captain of the body (only), he lacked (true) manliness: he sowed the seed of manliness in such (a place of) sand.]
  • The steed of his love tore up a hundred bridles: he (the captain) was shouting, “I care naught for death. 3865
  • What should I care about the Caliph? (Since I am) in love, my life and death are the same to me.”
  • Prithee, do not sow with such ardour and heat: take counsel with a (spiritual) master.
  • (But) where is counsel, where is reason, (when) the torrent of cupidity has extended its talons to destroy (them)?
  • A barrier in front and a barrier behind; (but) he that is fascinated by a (lovely) cheek does not see (what is) before or behind.
  • The black torrent comes to take his life, so that a fox may hurl a lion into the well (of destruction). 3870
  • Something (materially) non-existent causes a phantom to appear in a well, in order that it (the phantom) may cast into it lions (strong) as mountains.
  • Do not have any one intimate with thy womenfolk, for these two (the man and the woman) may be compared to cotton and sparks of fire.
  • It needs a fire quenched by God's water, one that like Joseph holds fast (to God) in (the hour of) evil temptation,
  • To withdraw itself (bravely) as lions from a charming Zalíkhá tall and slender as a cypress.
  • He (the captain) turned back from Mawsil and went on his way till he encamped in a wooded meadowland. 3875
  • The fire of his love was blazing in such wise that he could not distinguish earth from heaven.
  • He sought to embrace that moon (beauty) in her tent: where (at that time) was his reason and his dread of the Caliph?