from The Conference of the Birds
‘A lover’, said the
hoopoe, now their guide,
‘Is one in whom all
thoughts of Self have died;
Those who renounce
the Self deserve that name;
Righteous or sinful,
they are all the same!
Your heart is
thwarted by the Self’s control;
Destroy its hold on
you and reach your goal.
Give up this
hindrance, give up mortal sight,
For only then can you
approach the light.
If you are told:
“Renounce our Faith,” obey!
The Self and Faith
must both be tossed away;
Blasphemers call such
action blasphemy –
Tell them that love
exceeds mere piety.
Love has no time for
blasphemy or faith,
Nor lovers for the
Self, that feeble wraith.
They burn all that they own,
unmoved they feel
Against their skin the
torturer’s sharp steel.
Heart’s blood and bitter
pain belong to love,
And tales of problems no one
can remove;
Cupbearer, fill the bowl
with blood, not wine –
And if you lack the heart’s
rich blood take mine.
Love thrives on
inextinguishable pain,
Which tears the soul, then
knits the threads again.
A mote of love exceeds all
bounds; it gives
The vital essence to
whatever lives.
But where love thrives,
there pain is always found;
Angels alone escape this
weary round –
They love without that
savage agony
Which is reserved for vexed humanity.
Islam and blasphemy
have both been passed
By those who set out
on love’s path at last;
Love will direct you
to Dame Poverty,
And she will show
the way to Blasphemy.
When neither
Blasphemy nor Faith remain,
The body and the
Self have both been slain;
Then the fierce
fortitude the Way will ask
Is yours, and you
are worthy of our task.
Begin the journey
without fear; be calm;
Forget what is and
what is not Islam;
Put childish dread
aside – like heroes meet
The hundred problems
which you must defeat.’
Source of the text –
Farid ud Din Attar, The Conference of the
Birds, translated by Afkham Barbandi and Dick Davis. London: Penguin Books,
1984, p. 56-57.
TJB: To thine own self be not true. In smooth singsong couplets, the hoopoe bird delivers its argument: love transcends self, blasphemy, & faith.
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