* * * * * * *

“Forth from the Veil came that fair Cup-bearer, in hand the cup;
He tore our veils asunder, and our vows forthwith broke up;
Showed us His visage fair, and straightway us of sense bereft,
Then sat Him down beside us, when of us no trace was left.
His locks the knots unloosed; our spirits' bonds were cast aside;
Our souls abjured the world, and to His curls their fortunes tied.
There in His fragrant tresses we remained in frenzy fine,
Intoxicated with the proffered cup of ruby wine.
Lost at His hands, our hearts for refuge clung unto His hair,
E'en as the drowning man will catch at straws in his despair.
And when His tresses' chains became the bonds of hearts that raved,
From their own being they escaped and from the world were saved.”

Of the following ode a spirited translation was made, but not published, by my friend Sir E. Denison Ross. The translation here given resembles and is suggested by his, but is not identical with it, for I cannot lay my hands on the copy which I received, nor can I remember it in detail.

“Save love of thee a soul in me I cannot see, I cannot see;
An object for my love save thee I cannot see, I cannot see.
Repose or patience in my mind I cannot find, I cannot find,
While gracious glance or friendship free I cannot see, I cannot see.
Show in thy face some sign of grace, since for the pain wherewith I'm
slain
Except thy face a remedy I cannot see, I cannot see.
If thou wouldst see me, speed thy feet, for parted from thy presence sweet,
Continued life on earth for me I cannot see, I cannot see.
O friend, stretch out a hand to save, for I am fallen in a wave
Of which the crest, if crest there be, I cannot see, I cannot see.
With gracious care and kindly air come hither and my state repair;
A better state, apart from thee, I cannot see, I cannot see.
Some pathway to 'Iráqí teach whereby thy gateway he may reach,
For vagrant so bemused as he I cannot see, I cannot see.”

Besides his lyric poetry 'Iráqí composed a mathnawí poem entitled the 'Ushsháq-náma, or “Book of Lovers,” but The 'Ushsháqnáma this I have not read, nor is a copy of it at present accessible to me. I therefore pass to his most notable prose work, the Lama'át (“Flashes,” or “Effulgences”), a mystical treatise inspired, as already mentioned, by the teachings of “the most great doctor” (ash-Shaykhu'l-akbar ) Muḥiyyu'd-Dín ibnu'l-'Arabí, by origin of the famous Arabian tribe of Ṭayy, and by birth a Moor of Andalusia.

The Lama'át is a comparatively small book, containing, perhaps, between 7000 and 8000 words, and, though written The Lama'át in prose, includes numerous pieces of verse. The many-sided and talented Jámí, of whom we shall speak in a later chapter, wrote a commentary on it, entitled Ashi“atu'l-Lama'át * (“Rays of the Flashes”), in the Jámí's opinion of this work preface to which he says that he began by being prejudiced against the work and its author, but, being requested by one of his spiritual guides to study and collate the text, he found it to consist of “graceful phrases and charming suggestions, verse and prose combined together and subtleties in Arabic and Persian intermingled, wherein the signs of [human] knowledge and [superhuman] gnosis were apparent, and the lights of rapture and ecstasy manifest, so that it would awaken the sleeper, cause him who was awakened to apprehend secret mysteries, kindle the fire of Love, and put in motion the chain of Longing.” The book is divided into 28 “Flashes” (Lam'a), probably in correspondence with the number of letters in the Arabic alphabet. As a specimen I give the opening pages, down to the end of the first Lam'a, the prose portion in translation only, the verses both in translation and in the original.

“In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Forgiving.

“Praise be to God who illuminated the countenance of His Friend with the Effulgence of Beauty, so that it gleamed with Light; and made visible therein the limits of Perfection, and rejoiced therein with joy; and raised him up by His hand and chose him out while Adam was not yet a thing mentioned, nor had the Pen written, nor the Tablet been inscribed. [His friend, who was] the Treasure-house of the treasures of Being, the Key of the Store-houses of Bounty, the Qibla of Desire and the Desired One, the Possessor of the Standard of Praise and the Laudable Station, the tongue of whose high degree declares:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

‘Though in outward form I seem one of Adam's progeny,
Yet the underlying truth claims for me paternity.’ * <text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>

‘Although in form of Adam's race,’ said he,
‘Higher by far than his is my degree.
My beauty mirrored in a glass I see,
And all the world a picture seems of me.
Creation's Sun am I: doth it amaze
If each created atom me displays?
The holy Spirits make my Essence plain,
And human forms my Attributes retain.
The boundless Sea's a sprinkling of my grace;
The radiant light's a reflex of my face.
From Throne to Footstool all is but a mote
Which in the radiance of my Sun doth float.
The Veil of Attributes aside is hurled,
And my bright Essence brightens all the world.
The stream which Khiḍr's ebb of life did stop
Was of my Kawthar-stream a single drop.
That breath wherewith Christ loosed the thralls of Death
Was but a blast of my soul-saving breath.

My Essence all the Names doth manifest;
I am of Names the greatest and the best!’
(May God bless and hail Him!)

But to proceed. A few words on the degrees of Love, dictated by the mood of the moment, are here set down in the manner of the Sawániḥ, * that they may be for every lover a mirror to display the Beloved; though the rank of Love is too high for anyone to approach the pavilion of its glory by dint of understanding or explanation, or to gaze on the perfection of its true nature with the eyes of discovery and observation.

<text in Arabic script omitted>

Exalted high is Love o'er men's ambition,
And o'er ideas of union or partition;
For when a thing transcends all thought and mention
'Tis freed from likeness and from comprehension.

It is veiled by the Veil of Glory and isolated in its Perfection. Its Attributes are the Veils of its Essence and implicit in that Essence. Its Splendour is the Lover of its Beauty, which is involved in that Splendour. For ever it makes love to itself, and concerns itself not with aught else. Every moment it casts aside the Veil from the face of some loved one, and every instant it raises a new song in the way of loverhood.

<text in Arabic script omitted>

Within the Veil Love sings its air:
Where is the lover to hear it, where?

Each moment it chants a different lay,
And ever some melody fresh doth play.
All the Universe echoes its song:
Who hath heard such an anthem long?
Its secret out from the world doth leap:
How can an Echo its secret keep?
I tell no tales, but loud and clear
From the tongue of each atom its secret hear.

Every moment with every tongue it tells its secret to its own ear; every instant with all its ears it hears its speech from its own tongue; every minute with all its eyes it flashes its beauty on its own vision; every second in every aspect it presents its being to its own notice. Hear from me its description as it really is:

It speaks with me through speaking and through speechless; *
Through lowered eyelashes and glancing eyes.

Knowest thou what it whispers in my ears?

I am Love, for the which in these worlds there is found not a place:
The 'Anqá am I of the West, * who hath never a trace.

By my glance and my eyebrow the world I have captured, I trow,
Heed not that I do not possess either arrow or bow.
Revealed in the face of each atom am I, like the sun;
So apparent am I that my form is apparent to none.
I speak with all tongues, and with every ear do I hear
Though, strange as it seems, I have neither a tongue nor an ear.
I am all that exists in all worlds, so 'tis patent and clear
That neither in this world nor that have I rival or peer.