Go and Become Nothing
Khwaju Kermaniخواجوی کرمانی
رو نیست شو ای خواجه که هستت خوانند
Go and become nothing, sir, so they will say you truly are;
هشیار چنان باش که مستت خوانند
be so awake that they will call you drunk.
زنهار ز بهر آن خدا را مپرست
Take care not to worship God only so
کابنای زمان خدا پرستت خوانند
that the people of the age will call you a worshipper of God.
A note for readers
A quatrain from Badaye’ al-Jamal against piety performed for an audience. Its paradoxes are those of the Sufis: the self that is emptied truly exists, and the one who seems drunk is the one who is awake.
More poemsشعرهای دیگر
مرغی دیدم نشسته بر باره طوس
در پیش نهاده کله کیکاووس
I saw a bird perched on the ramparts of Tus,
with the skull of Kay Kavus set down before it.
A Bird on the Walls of Tus
یکی قطره باران ز ابری چکید
خجل شد چو پهنای دریا بدید
A drop of rain fell from a cloud;
it was ashamed when it saw the breadth of the sea.
A Drop of Rain
ابتدای کار سیمرغ ای عجب
جلوه‌گر بگذشت بر چین نیم‌شب
The beginning of the Simorgh’s story, how wonderful:
in all his splendour he passed over China at midnight.