O Faizí, is there any one in this world that possesses more patience and strength than he who can twice walk down his street?*

Desires are not to be found within my dwelling place: when thou comest, come with a content heart.

Renounce love; for love is an affair which cannot be satisfactorily terminated. Neither fate nor the beloved will ever submit to thy wishes.

1. Come, let us turn towards a pulpit of light, let us lay the foundation of a new Ka'bah with stones from Mount Sinai!

2. The wall (haṭím) of the Ka'bah is broken, and the basis of the qiblah is gone, let us build a faultless fortress on a new foundation!*

1. Where is Love, that we might melt the chain of the door of the Ka'­bah, in order to make a few idols for the sake of worship.

2. We might throw down this Ka'bah which Hajjáj has erected, in order to raise a foundation for a (Christian) monastery.*

1. How long shall I fetter my heart with the coquettishness of beauti­ful boys? I will burn this heart and make a new, another heart.

2. O Faizí, thy hand is empty, and the way of love lies before thee, then pawn the only thing that is left thee, thy poems, for the sake of obtaining the two worlds.

How can I approve of the blame which certain people attach to Zalíkhá? It would have been well if the backbiting tongues of her slanderers had been cut instead of their hands.*

I cannot shew ungratefulness to Love. Has he not overwhelmed me with —sadness and sadness?

I cannot understand the juggler trick which love performed: it introduced Thy form through so small an aperture as the pupil of my eye is into the large space of my heart, and yet my heart cannot contain it.

Flee, fate is the raiser of battle-fields; the behaviour of thy companions is in the spirit of (the proverb) ‘hold it (the jug) oblique, but do not spill (the contents).’*

My intention is not to leave my comrades behind. What shall I do with those whose feet are wounded, whilst the caravan travels fast onwards?

This night thou tookst no notice of me, and didst pass by;

Thou receivedst no blessing from my eyes, and didst pass by.

The tears, which would have caused thy hyacinths to bloom,

Thou didst not accept from my moistened eye, but didst pass by.

1. On the field of desire, a man need not fear animals wild or tame: in this path thy misfortunes arise from thyself.

2. O Love, am I permitted to take the banner of thy grandeur from off the shoulder of heaven, and put it on my own?

1. O Faizí, I am so high-minded, that fate finds the arm of my thought leaning against the thigh of the seventh heaven.

2. If other poets [as the ancient Arabians] hung their poems on the door of the temple of Makkah, I will hang my love story on the vault of heaven.

1. O cupbearer Time, cease doing battle! Akbar's glorious reign rolls along, bring me a cup of wine:

2. Not such wine as drives away wisdom, and makes fools of those who command respect, as is done by fate;

3. Nor the harsh wine which fans in the conceited brain the fire of fool­hardiness on the field of battle;

4. Nor that shameless wine which cruelly and haughtily delivers reason over to the Turk of passion;

5. Nor that fiery wine the heat of which, as love-drunken eyes well know, melts the bottles [the hearts of men];—

6. But that unmixed wine the hidden power of which makes Fate repent her juggling tricks [i. e., which makes man so strong, that he vanquishes fate];

7. That clear wine with which those who constantly worship in cloisters sanctify the garb of the heart;

8. That illuminating wine which shews lovers of the world the true path;

9. That pearling wine which cleanses the contemplative mind of fanciful thoughts.

In the assembly of the day of resurrection, when past things shall be for­given, the sins of the Ka'bah will be forgiven for the sake of the dust of Christian churches.*

1. Behold the garb of Faizí's magnanimity! Angels have mended its hem with pieces of the heaven.

2. The most wonderful thing I have seen is Faizí's heart: it is at once the pearl, the ocean, and the diver.

The look of the beloved has done to Faizí what no mortal enemy would have done.

1. The travellers who go in search of love are on reaching it no longer alive in their howdahs; unless they die, they never reach the shore of this ocean [love].

2. Walk on, Faizí, urge on through this desert the camel of zeal; for those who yearn for their homes [earthly goods] never reach the sacred enclosure, the heart.

The dusty travellers on the road to poverty seem to have attained nothing; is it perhaps because they have found there [in their poverty] a precious jewel?

1. In the beginning of eternity some love-glances formed mirrors, which reduced my heart and my eye to a molten state [i. e., my heart and eye are pure like mirrors].

2. What attractions lie in the curls of idols, that the inhabitants of the two worlds [i. e., many people] have turned their face [from ideal] to terrestrial love?

3. If a heart goes astray from the company of lovers, do not enquire after it; for whatever is taken away from this caravan, has always been brought back, [i. e., the heart for a time did without love, but sooner or later it will come back and love].

It is not patience that keeps back my hand from my collar; but the collar is already so much torn, that you could not tear it more.*

1. If Lailí* had had no desire to be with Majnún, why did she uselessly ride about on a camel?

2. If any one prevents me from worshipping idols, why does he circum­ambulate the gates and walls in the Haram [the temple in Makkah]?*

3. Love has robbed Faizí of his patience, his understanding, and his sense; behold, what this highway robber has done to me, the caravan chief!

When Love reaches the emporium of madness, he builds in the desert triumphal arches with the shifting sands.

1. Take the news to the old man of the tavern on the eve of the 'I´d,* and tell him that I shall settle to-night the wrongs* of the last thirty days.

2. Take Faizí's Díwán to bear witness to the wonderful speeches of a free-thinker who belongs to a thousand sects.

1. I have become dust, but from the odour of my grave, people shall know that man rises from such dust.

2. They may know Faizí's* end from his beginning: without an equal he goes from the world, and without an equal he rises.

O Love, do not destroy the Ka'bah; for there the weary travellers of the road sometimes rest for a moment.

He [Akbar] is a king whom, on account of his wisdom, we call zúfunún [possessor of the sciences], and our guide on the path of religion.

Although kings are the shadow of God on earth, he is the emanation of God's light. How then can we call him a shadow?*

He is a king who opens at night the door of bliss, who shows the road at night to those who are in darkness.

Who even once by day beholds his face, sees at night the sun rising in his dream.

If you wish to see the path of guidance as I have done, you will never see it without having seen the king.

Thy old fashioned prostration is of no advantage to thee—see Akbar, and you see God.*

O king, give me at night the lamp of hope, bestow upon my taper the everlasting ray!

Of the light which illuminates the eye of Thy heart,* give me an atom, by the light of the sun!

No friend has ever come from the unseen world; from the caravan of non-existence no voice has ever come.

The heaven is the bell from which the seven metals come, and yet no sound has ever come from it notwithstanding its hammers.*