THE CLOUD ON THE MOUNTAIN

Introduction
This short and beautiful poem shows that the cloud, which is commonplace to the un-initiated person, is at once a source of happiness and benevolence of God and a guide towards Him for the initiated.

Translation
Elevation bestows the sky's nearness to my abode
I am the mountain's cloud, my skirt sprinkles roses

Now the wilderness, now the rose garden is my abode
City and wilderness are mine, ocean is mine, forest is mine

If I want to return to some valley for the night
The mountain's verdure is my carpet of velvet

Nature has taught me to be a pearl spreader
To chant the camel song for the camel of the Beloved of Mercy

To be the comforter of the dispirited farmer's heart
To be the elegance of the assembly of the garden's trees

I spread out over the face of the earth like the locks
I get arranged and adorned by the breeze's ¹

I tantalize the expecting eye from a distance
As I pass silently over some habitation

As I approach strolling towards a brook's bank
I endow the brook with ear rings of whirlpools

I am the hope of the freshly grown field's verdure
I am the ocean's offspring, I am nourished by the sun

I gave ocean's tumult to the mountain spring
I charmed the birds into thrilling chants

I pronounced "Rise"² standing by the verdure's head
I conferred the taste for smile to the rose-bud

By my benevolence farmers' huts on the mountain side
Are converted into bed chambers of the opulent

Explanatory Notes
1. This is a beautiful imagery of the way in which wind channels the pieces of cloud together and brings the benevolent rain to the parched earth as well as scatters the clouds away when no longer needed.

2. This is an allusion to the miracle of S.‘�s� A.S. in which, he used to raise the dead to life by pronouncing "Qum bi Idhnillah" (Rise with the permission of God) (The Holy Qur’�n 5:110). Just as S.‘�s� A.S. used to raise the dead to life with the permission of God so does the rain from cloud raise the apparently dead vegetation to life with the permission of God (The Holy Qur’�n 78:14-16).