Page:The Mesnevī (Volume 2).pdf/36

Rh Since his name has come (to my lips), it behoves me to set forth some hint of his bounty.

At this moment my Soul! has plucked my skirt: he has caught the perfume of Joseph’s vest.

(He said): “For the sake of our years of companionship, recount one of those sweet ecstasies,

That earth and heaven may laugh (with joy), that intellect and spirit and eye may increase a hundredfold.”

(I said): “Do not lay tasks on me, for I have passed away from myself (faná); my apprehensions are blunted and I know not how to praise.

Everything that is said by one who has not returned to consciousness, if he constrains himself or boastfully exaggerates, is unseemly.

How should I—not a vein of mine is sensible—describe that Friend who hath no peer?

The description of this severance and this heart's blood do thou at present leave over till another time.”

He said; “Feed me, for I am hungry, and make haste, for Time is a cutting sword.

The Sufi is the son of the (present) time, O comrade: it is not the rule of the Way to say ‘To-morrow.’

Art not thou sea a Sufi, then? That which is (in hand) is reduced to naught by postponing the payment.”

I said to him: “It is better that the secret of the Friend should be disguised: do thou hearken (to it as implied) in the contents of the tale.

It is better that the lovers’ secret should be told in the talk of others,”

He said: “Tell it forth openly and nakedly and without unfaithfulness: do not put me off, O trifler!

Lift the veil and speak nakedly, for I do not wear a shirt when I sleep with the Adored One.”

I said: “If He should become naked in (thy) vision, neither wilt thou remain nor thy bosom nor thy waist.

Ask thy wish, but ask with measure; a blade of straw will not support the mountain.

If the Sun, by whom this world is illumined, should approach a little (nearer), all will be burned.

Do not seek trouble and turmoil and bloodshed; say no more concerning the Sun of Tabriz!”

This (mystery) hath no end: tell of the beginning. Go, relate the conclusion of this tale.