ZINDA-RUD DEPARTS FROM PARADISE:
THE HOURIS’
REQUEST
| The glass of my patience and quietude was shattered; | |
| The Sage of Rum spoke in my ear, ‘Rise up’. | |
| Ah, those words of love, that ecstatic certainty! | |
| Ah that court, that sublime palace; | 3450 |
| heart bleeding, I reached its gate | |
| and beheld there a throng of houris, | |
| on their lips, ‘Zinda-Rud, Zinda-Rud, | |
| Zinda-Rud, master of fire and melody!’ | |
| Clamour and tumult rose from left and right: | 3455 |
| ‘One or two moments sit with us. sit with us!’ |
Zinda-Rud
| The traveller who knows the secrets of the journey | |
| fears the lodging-place more than the highwayman. | |
| Love reposes not in separation, nor in union, | |
| reposes not, without Eternal Beauty; | 3460 |
| first beginning, falling down before idols, | |
| final end, freedom from all heart-ravishers. | |
| Love recks for nothing, and is ever on the move, | |
| a wayfarer in space and spacelessness. | |
| Our creed, like the swift-paced wave: | 3465 |
| abandon the halting-place, choose the highway. |
The Houris of Paradise
| Your blandishments are like those of Time; |
| grudge us not now one sweet song. |