Page 60 - 47176

4« TilE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ ( 0

TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY

1. Would that I were aware whether they knew what heart
they possessed !
2. And would that my heart knew what mountain-pass they
threaded!
3. Dost thou deem them safe or dost thou deem them dead ?
4. Lovers lose their way in love and become entangled.

C o m m e n t a r y
1. ‘ They,’ i.e. the Divine Ideas of which the
hearts (of gnostics) are passionately enamoured, and by
which the spirits are disti’aught, and for whose sake the
godly workers JCUll) perform their works of
devotion.
‘ Wliat heart ’ : he refers to the perfect Muhammadan
heart, because it is not limited by stations ).
Nevertheless, it is possessed by the Divine Ideas, for they
seek it and it seeks them. They cannot know that they
possess it, for they belong to its essence, inasmuch as it
beholds in them nothing except its own natui'e.
2. ‘ What mountain-pass they threaded,’ i.e. wliat gnostic’s
pass ’ signifies a ‘ station’ which is fixed, in contrast
heart they entered when they vanished from mine. ‘ Mountain-

to a ‘ .state ’ ( Jl*-), which is fleeting.
3. The Divine Ideas, qud Ideas, exist only in the existence
of the seer; they are ‘ dead ’ in so far as the seer is non­
existent.
4. Lovei's are perplexed between two opposite things, for
the lover wishes to be in accord with the Beloved and also
wishes to be united Avith Him, so that if the Beloved wishes
to be separated from the lover, the lover is in a dilemma.