My eye is the boundless ocean, the thought of my heart is a
bark,
In sorrow my bark sets forth on the floods as they flow from
my eyes.
Night and day I float in the flood of tears, how can my bark 114.
live in the midst of the raging billows of blood?
How can I expect to win my desire from the vile world?
How can I launch my bark on the surface of a gutter?
Although my bark in this ocean, now sails on and now lies at
rest, sailing with the seven sails,*
and resting on the four
anchors.*
Of what use to me are those sails and those anchors,
If my bark is suddenly overwhelmed by the billows of
death?
In this age I sought fidelity from the tyrannical,
Who has ever seen a boat on the Jīhūn in the month of
Mehrgān*
In front of the claws of this crab*
and the revolution of the
nine heavens, loosen*
thy four anchors and then launch
thy bark.
The sea-monster of avarice of my soul turns back, otherwise*
one might drag the boat to the shore by some contrivance.
With the exception of the philosophers how can anyone
guide the ship out of the whirlpool of this world to its final
haven of refuge.*
Do not set thy heart upon the ebony *
-like world, because a
ship built of ebony is overwhelmed in the sea of this
worthless world.
Do not seek for safety when loaded with boastfulness
For an overloaded ship is speedily wrecked,
Seek security from sorrow at that time when you have been
wise enough to make, as I have, a ship from the planks of
the praise of thy lord.
The centre of kingship of land and sea Tāju-l-Haqq, who 115.
made a ship of safety for traversing the ocean (Qulzum)
of sorrow.
Sinjar*
who is like the sky in dignity, in fear of whom
sedition navigated its ship in the direction of the crossing
of the ocean of Qairawān.*
From the breeze of his smile in the ocean, the ship produces
from every dry stick the branch of saffron.*
When his auspicious prow turns towards the ocean the ship
looks like a pearl emerging from the sea.
The heaven offers itself as his ladder when, arriving near the
shore, the ship stands in need of a ladder.
At that time when his ship floats over the crimson tide of the
blood of his brave enemies,
If we look, it appears as though his ship crosses over the dry
(sparkling) water of the points of daggers and spears.
Thy enemy saw his life like a snare (from which he must
escape) and the ship of his desire shattered to pieces by
thy bond-loosening arrow.*
By the good fortune of thy arrival the ship sails along on
its breast, on the tops of the waves to the very highest
heavens.*
Thy dagger lays open the breast of thy envious enemies just
as, by means of its keel, the ship opens the lips of the
waves and the mouth of the ocean,
At that time when, in pursuit of the punishment of thine
enemies, the morning breezes hasten their march and thy
ship goes with slackened rein. 116. From this lake Khusrū demanded a ship (ode),
Saying such and such a ship is fit for this wide ocean.
I obediently set it sailing over the face of that ocean,
Although that ship was not fitted for such a sea.
When the sea of my mind burst into waves in thy praise, I
made the word (kishtī) the radīf by way of trial.
If the ship had not been like a fish, tongueless in its essence
It would not have addressed me except as “Ocean of benevolence and mine of eloquence”
Among the profoundly learned is there anyone better than
‘Amīd who has launched his ship from the Nile of excellence
into this Clysma*
of eloquence.
Always, as long as in the shape of the crescent moon, with
each new month, the ship appears on the bosom of the
ocean of the sky,
May thy boat of wine, bright as the sun, and liquid as fire,
float upon the water of delight for ever and ever.