POEMS OF FARID UD-DIN ATTAR

From Mantic at-Tayr (The Conference of the Birds) and other works

By

Farid ud-Din Attar

Ref: http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/A/AttarFaridud/index.htm#PoemList

CONTENTS:

The Dullard Sage

Lost in myself I reappeared I know not wherea drop that rose from the sea and fell and dissolved again;a shadow that stretched itself out at dawn,when the sun reached noon I disappeared.I have no news of my coming or passing away--the whole thing happened quicker than a breath;ask no questions of the moth. In the candle flameof his face I have forgotten all the answers.In the way of love there must be knowledge and ignoranceso I have become both a dullard and a sage;one must be an eye and yet not seeso I am blind and yet I still perceive,Dust be on my head if I can saywhere I in bewilderment have wandered:Attar

watched his heart transcend both worldsand under its shadow now is gone mad with love.

Invocation

We are busy with the luxury of things.Their number and multiple faces bringTo us confusion we call knowledge. Say:God created the world, pinned night to day,Made mountains to weigh it down, seasTo wash its face, living creatures with pleas(The ancestors of prayers) seeking a placeIn this mystery that floats in endless space.God set the earth on the back of a bull,The bull on a fish dancing on a spoolOf silver light so fine it is like air;That in turn rests on nothing thereBut nothing that nothing can share.All things are but masks at God's beck and call,They are symbols that instruct us that God is all.

God Speaks to Moses

One day God spoke to Moses and said:'Visit Satan, question him, use your head.'So Moses descended to Hells burning halls;Satan saw him coming, a smile did he installOn his fiery face. Moses proudly asked himFor advice, waiting for Satan's crafty whim;Satan spoke through his coal-black teeth:'Remember this rule which sense bequeathsNever say "I" so that you become like me.'So long as you live for yourself you'll beA drum booming pride a cymbal of infidelity.Vanity, resentment, envy and anger shall be cementedInto your inner state; you shall be like a dementedDog with lolling tongue, infected with indolence of sin.You shall become your own tracked prisoner within.

God Speaks to David

David was an open vessel, the lightPoured into him. God's words took flightIn him and through him God said:'To all humankind, who are wedTo hubris and sin, I say: "If heaven and hellDid not exist to catch you and break you,Would you, though a speck of dust, tellTruth from falsehood, would your eye find trueCentre in my words? If there was nothing but darkWould you think of me, still less markYour place with the leaf of prayer? YetYou are bound to my will, your soul is setIn the direction of my breath, with hopeAnd fear which cracks the dawn of your heart,So you will worship me with all your mindWords and inclination. Make a start:Burn to ashes all that is not I, bindThe ashes to the fidelity of the wind,Extract the ore of your being,Then you shall start seeing."'

The Pupil asks; the Master answers

'Why was Adam driven from the garden?'The pupil asked his master. 'His heart was hardenedWith images, a hundred bonds that clutter the earthChained Adam to the cycle of death following birth.He was blind to this equation, living for something otherThan God and so out of paradise he was drivenWith his mortal body's cover his soul was shriven.Noblest of God's creatures, Adam fell with blame,Like a moth shrivelled by the candle's flame,Into history which taught mankind shame.Since Adam had not given up his heartTo God's attachment, there was no partFor Adam in paradise where the only friendIs God; His will is not for Adam to imagine and bend.'

The Nightingale

'Why was Adam driven from the garden?'The pupil asked his master. 'His heart was hardenedWith images, a hundred bonds that clutter the earthChained Adam to the cycle of death following birth.He was blind to this equation, living for something otherThan God and so out of paradise he was drivenWith his mortal body's cover his soul was shriven.Noblest of God's creatures, Adam fell with blame,Like a moth shrivelled by the candle's flame,Into history which taught mankind shame.Since Adam had not given up his heartTo God's attachment, there was no partFor Adam in paradise where the only friendIs God; His will is not for Adam to imagine and bend.'

How long then will you seek for beauty here?

How long then will you seek for beauty here?Seek the unseen, and beauty will appear.When the last veil is lifted neither menNor all their glory will be seen again,The universe will fade -- this mighty showIn all its majesty and pomp will go,And those who loved appearances will proveEach other's enemies and forfeit love,While those who loved the absent, unseen FriendWill enter that pure love which knows no end.

Look -- I do nothing; He performs all deeds

Look -- I do nothing; He performs all deedsAnd He endures the pain when my heart bleeds.When He draws near and grants you and audienceShould you hang back in tongue-tied diffidence?When will your cautious heart consent to goBeyond the homely boundaries you know?O slave, if He should show His love to you,Love which His deeds perpetually renew,You will be nothing, you will disappear --Leave all to Him who acts, and have no fear.If there is any "you", if any wraithOf self persists, you've strayed outside our faith.

The Hawk

He was a soldier with a soldier's pride,This hawk, whose home was by a king's side.He was haughty as his master, all other birdsThought him a disaster, his beak was fearedAs much as his talons. With hooded eyes(His place on the royal roster was his prize)He stands sentinel on the king's arm, politeAnd trained meticulously to do what is rightAnd proper with courtly grace. He has no needTo see the Simurgh even in a dream, his deedsAre sufficient for him, and no journey could replaceThe royal command, royal morsel food no disgraceTo his way of thinking, he easily satisfies the king.He flies with cutting grace on sinister wingThrough valleys and upward into the sky,He has no other wish but so to live and then to die.The hoopoe says: 'You have no sense with your soldier's pride.Do you think that supping with kings, doing their willIs enough to keep you in favour, always at their side?An earthly king may be just but you must beware stillFor a king's justice is whim pretending to be good.Once there was a king who prized his slave for his beauty.His body's silver sheen fascinated the prince who wouldDress him in fine clothes so his looks alone were his duty.The king amused himself by placing on his favourite's headAn apple for a bullseye, the poor silver slave would growYellow with fear because he knew too well blood is red.His silver hue would be tarnished if the king's bowWas not true; an injured slave would his silver loseTo be discarded because the king would not be amused.'

The Lover

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.

The peacock's excuse

Next came the peacock, splendidly arrayedIn many-coloured pomp; this he displayedAs if he were some proud, self-conscious brideTurning with haughty looks from side to side.'The Painter of the world created me,'He shrieked, 'but this celestial wealth you seeShould not excite your hearts to jealousy.I was a dweller once in paradise;There the insinuating snake's adviceDeceived me -- I became his friend, disgraceWas swift and I was banished from that place.My dearest hope is that some blessed dayA guide will come to indicate the wayBack to my paradise. The king you praiseIs too unknown a goal; my inward gazeIs fixed for ever on that lovely land --There is the goal which I can understand.How could I seek the Simorgh out when IRemember paradise?' And in replyThe hoopoe said: 'These thoughts have made you strayFurther and further from the proper Way;You think your monarch's palace of more worthThan Him who fashioned it and all the earth.The home we seek is in eternity;The Truth we seek is like a shoreless sea,Of which your paradise is but a drop.This ocean can be yours; why should you stopBeguiled by dreams of evanescent dew?The secrets of the sun are yours, but youContent yourself with motes trapped in its beams.Turn to what truly lives, reject what seems --Which matters more, the body or the soul?Be whole: desire and journey to the Whole.

The Vain Bird

'You see I am vanity personified,Iblis watches over me night and dayThus I'm prescribed by him without a guide.I am torn self from self, I can't find the Way.I'm a finger of the Devil's pride.I cannot resist, I am the Devil tried.'The hoopoe hears the sixth bird outand says: 'You're meat for the dog of desire.The Devil's fool you are, no matter how you shoutYour avowals to start again. The devil you acquiresWith vain conceits that steadily eat your soulAs worms quilt the body's fodder which is your end.Unless you realize in heart and mind that as you areYou're the Devil's coal ready to burn to ash. No friendIs he who seems to satisfy your whims, you're farFrom the Way you wish to travel or so you say;Reject the world's blandishments that spin you astray.'

I shall grasp the soul's skirt with my hand

I shall grasp the soul's skirt with my handand stamp on the world's head with my foot.I shall trample Matter and Space with my horse,beyond all Being I shall utter a great shout,and in that moment when I shall be alone with Him,I shall whisper secrets to all mankind.Since I shall have neither sign nor nameI shall speak only of things unnamed and without sign.Do not delude yourself that from a burned heartI will discourse with palatte and tongue.The body is impure, I shall cast it awayand utter these pure words with soul alone.

Looking for your own face

Your face is neither infinite nor ephemeral.You can never see your own face,only a reflection, not the face itself.

So you sigh in front of mirrorsand cloud the surface.

It's better to keep your breath cold.Hold it, like a diver does in the ocean.One slight movement, the mirror-image goes.

Don't be dead or asleep or awake.Don't be anything.

What you most want,what you travel around wishing to find,lose yourself as lovers lose themselves,and you'll be that.

Mysticism

The sun can only be seen by the lightof the sun. The more a man or woman knows,the greater the bewilderment, the closerto the sun the more dazzled, until a pointis reached where one no longer is.

A mystic knows without knowledge, withoutintuition or information, without contemplationor description or revelation. Mysticsare not themselves. They do not existin selves. They move as they are moved,talk as words come, see with sightthat enters their eyes. I met a womanonce and asked her where love had led her."Fool, there's no destination to arrive at.Loved one and lover and love are infinite."

All who, reflecting as reflected see

All who, reflecting as reflected seeThemselves in Me, and Me in them; not Me,But all of Me that of contracted EyeIs comprehensive of Infinity;Nor yet Themselves: no Selves, but of The AllFractions, from which they split and wither fall.As Water lifted from the Deep, againFalls back in individual Drops of Rain,Then melts into the Universal Main.All you have been, and seen, and done, and thought,Not You but I, have seen and been and wrought:I was the Sin that from Myself rebell'd;I the Remorse that tow'rd Myself compell'd;I was the Tajidar who led the Track;I was the little Briar that pull'd you back:Sin and Contrition -- Retribution owed,And cancell'd -- Pilgrim, Pilgrimage, and Road,Was but Myself toward Myself; and YourArrival but Myself at my own Door; Who in your Fraction of Myself behold Myself within the Mirror Myself hold To see Myself in, and each part of Me That sees himself, though drown'd, shall ever see. Come you lost Atoms to your Centre draw, And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw: Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide Return, and back into your Sun subside.'

The angels have bowed down to you and drowned

The angels have bowed down to you and drownedYour soul in Being, past all plummet's sound --Do not despise yourself, for there is noneWho could with you sustain comparison;Do not torment yourself -- your soul is All,Your body but a fleeting particle.This All will clarify, and in its lightEach particle will shine, distinctly bright --As flesh remains an agent of the soul,You soul's an agent of the sacred Whole.But "part" and "whole" must disappear at last;The Way is one, and number is surpassed.A hundred thousand clouds above you press;Their rain is pure, unending happiness;And when the desert blooms with flowers, their scentAnd beauty minister to your content;The prayers of all the angels, all they do,All their obedience, God bestows on you.

The Birds Find Their King

Once more they ventured from the Dust to raiseTheir Eyes -- up to the Throne -- into the Blaze,And in the Centre of the Glory thereBeheld the Figure of -- Themselves -- as 'twereTransfigured -- looking to Themselves, beheldThe Figure on the Throne en-miracled,Until their Eyes themselves and That betweenDid hesitate which Seer was, which Seen;They That, That They: Another, yet the Same;Dividual, yet One: from whom there cameA Voice of awful Answer, scarce discern'd,From which to Aspiration whose return'dThey scarcely knew; as when some Man apartAnswers aloud the Question in his Heart:'The Sun of my Perfection is a GlassWherein from Seeing into Being pass.'

The Eternal Mirror

Not You but I, have seen and been and wrought. . . .Who in your Fraction of Myself beholdMyself within the Mirror Myself holdTo see Myself in, and each part of MeThat sees himself, though drown'd, shall ever see.Come you lost Atoms to your Centre draw,And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw:Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wideReturn, and back into your Sun subside.

THE END