Original title: Ay Bulbulan

Translated by Juan Cole

 

 

Nightingales, O nightingales!
The season of roses, the blooming time... is here.
Mystics, O mystics!
What you could not see, now you can.
Lovers, O lovers!
The adored one's cheek is in full view.
Seekers, O seekers!
The object of desire is before your eyes.
The beauty of the Eternal Truth has dawned;
the lights of the Absolute have shone.
You must be freed from the body's jail,
so that you can soar into the air.
The beloved, seated, veiled --
the great king of the exalted spheres --
now, like Joseph in Egypt,
frequents alleyways and bazaars!
The Unseen One was concealed behind a hundred eons
on the Mount Qaf of immortality --
Now look, what a sun in the sky there is;
night has retreated from the hills.
The wholesale bazaar of lovers
has been scattered by your perfumed locks
And because of your lips -- sugar rubies --
everything smells like a confectioner's shop.
The wine has matured in its jugs;
Reason and intellect are left bewildered
When the chalice of God was filled to the brim
everyone rushed to imbibe this deadly poison!