DEPARTURE FOR THE GARDEN OF PARADISE
| I passed beyond the bounds of this universe | |
| and set foot in the undimensioned world, | |
| a world without both right and left, | 2755 |
| a world devoid of night and day. | |
| Before it the lantern of my perception dimmed, | |
| my words died in awe of the meaning. | |
| To speak of the spirit with the tongue of water and clay— | |
| it is very hard to soar in a cage! | 2760 |
| Regard a little while the world of the heart | |
| that you may win clear vision by the light of the Self. | |
| What is the heart? A world without colour and scent, | |
| a world without colour and scent and without dimensions. | |
| The heart is at rest, yet every moment in motion; | 2765 |
| the heart is a world of spiritual states and thoughts. | |
| Reason makes its way from fact to fact, | |
| it travels without highroad and tramping and transport; | |
| a hundred images, each different from the other, | |
| this one acquaint with heaven, that one unattaining. | 2770 |
| No one says that this which is acquaint with heaven | |
| is on the right hand of that unattaining image, | |
| or that the joy which comes from beholding the beloved | |
| is but half a pace from the air of His street. | |
| Your eyes may be wakeful or asleep; | 2775 |
| the heart sees without the rays of the sun. | |
| Know that world by the world of the heart— | |
| yet what shall I say of what defies analogy? | |
| In that universe was another world | |
| whose origin was from another Divine fiat, | 2780 |
| undecaying, and every moment transformed, | |
| unimaginable, yet there clearly visible; | |
| every moment clothed in a new perfection, | |
| every moment clad in a new beauty. | |
| Its time had no need of moon and sun; | 2785 |
| in its expanse the nine spheres are contained. | |
| Whatever is in the Unseen comes face to face | |
| even before the desire for it issues from the heart. | |
| How can I tell in my own tongue what it is, | |
| this world? It is light, and presence, and life. | 2790 |
| Tulips repose amidst the mountains, | |
| rivers meander in the rose -gardens; | |
| buds crimson, white and blue | |
| blossom with the breath of the holy ones; | |
| its waters silver, the air ambergris, | 2795 |
| palaces with domes of emerald, | |
| tents of ruby with golden ropes, | |
| beauties with countenances radiant as a mirror. | |
| Rumi said, ‘Prisoner of analogy, | |
| pass beyond the credibility of the senses, | 2800 |
| acts fair and foul derive out of manifestation, | |
| the latter turning to Hell, the former to Heaven; | |
| these many-coloured palaces you behold | |
| are built of deeds, not of bricks and stones; | |
| what you call Kauthar and page and houri | 2805 |
| are the reflection of this world of ecstasy and joy. | |
| Here life is the Beatific Vision, naught else, | |
| the bliss of seeing and speaking with the Beloved.’ |