منطق الطیر

"Then cried the Spokesman, 'Be it even so:

Let us but see the Fount from which we flow,

'And, seeing, lose Ourselves therein!' and, Lo!

Before the Word was utter'd, or the Tongue

Of Fire replied, or Portal open flung.

They were within—they were before the Throne,

Before the Majesty that sat thereon,

But wrapt in so insufferable a Blaze

Of Glory as beat down their baffled Gaze.

Which, downward dropping, fell upon a Scroll

That, Lightning-like, flash'd back on each the whole

Past half-forgotten Story of his Soul:

Like that which Yusuf in his Glory gave

His Brethren as some Writing he would have

Interpreted; and at a Glance, behold

Their own Indenture for their Brother sold!

And so with these poor Thirty: who, abasht

In Memory all laid bare and Conscience lasht,

By full Confession and Self-loathing flung

The Rags of carnal Self that round them clung;

And, their old selves self-knowledged and self-loathed,

And in the Soul's Integrity re-clothed,

Once more they ventured from the Dust to raise

Their Eyes—up to the Throne—into the Blaze,

And in the Centre of the Glory there

Beheld the Figure of—Themselves—as 'twere

Transfigured—looking to Themselves, beheld

The Figure on the Throne en-miracled,

Until their Eyes themselves and That between

Did hesitate which Sëer was, which Seen;

They That, That They: Another, yet the Same:

Dividual, yet One: from whom there came

A Voice of awful Answer, scarce discern'd

From which to Aspiration whose return'd

They scarcely knew; as when some Man apart

Answers aloud the Question in his Heart—

'The Sun of my Perfection is a Glass

Wherein from Seeing into Being pass

All who, reflecting as reflected see

Themselves in Me, and Me in Them: not Me,

But all of Me that a contracted Eye

Is comprehensive of Infinity:

Nor yet Themselves: no Selves, but of The All

Fractions, from which they split and whither fall.

As Water lifted from the Deep, again

Falls back in individual Drops of Rain

Then melts into the Universal Main.

All you have been, and seen, and done, and thought,

Not You but I, have seen and been and wrought:

I was the Sin that from Myself rebell'd:

I the Remorse that tow'rd Myself compell'd:

I was the Tajidar who led the Track:

I was the little Briar that pull'd you back:

Sin and Contrition—Retribution owed,

And cancell'd—Pilgrim, Pilgrimage, and Road,

Was but Myself toward Myself: and Your

Arrival but Myself at my own Door:

Who in your Fraction of Myself behold

Myself within the Mirror Myself hold

To see Myself in, and each part of Me

That sees himself, though drown'd, shall ever see.

Come you lost Atoms to your Centre draw,

And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw:

Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide

Return, and back into your Sun subside.'—

 Página de um manuscrito persa de Mantiq al-Tayr
Habiballah of Sava - Isfahan, Irão 1610

This was the Parliament of Birds: and this

The Story of the Host who went amiss,

And of the Few that better Upshot found;

Which being now recounted, Lo, the Ground

Of Speech fails underfoot: But this to tell—

Their Road is thine—Follow—and Fare thee well."

The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar  

tr. by Edward FitzGerald, 1889 lin.1365 - 1435