THE SONG OF HALLAJ
| Seek from your own earth a fire as yet unseen, | |
| another’s apparition is unworthy of your demand. | |
| I have so fastened on myself my gaze, that though the beauty of the Beloved | |
| fills all the world, I am left no time to contemplate. | |
| I would not give for Jamshid’s realm that verse of Naziri: | 2145 |
| ‘He who is yet unslain belongs not to our tribe.’ | |
| Though reason whose trade is wizardry mustered an army, | |
| your heart will not be dismayed, for Love is not alone. | |
| You know not the way and are uninformed of the stage; | |
| what melody is there that is not in Sulaima’s lute? | 2150 |
| Tell a tale of the hunting and fettering of sharks: | |
| do not say, ‘Our skiff knows not the face of the sea.’ | |
| I am disciple of the zeal of that wayfarer who never set foot | |
| on any high-road that ran over mountains, deserts and seas. | |
| Be partner with the ring of wine-bibbing dissolutes; | 2155 |
| beware of allegiance to a Master who is not a man of tumult. |