Muntakhab al-tawarikh 366.5

366.5

Until at length I have become, through thee, a byword for madness. I have poured from my heart so much hot blood that it has cast All my life, entirely, and utterly, into a fiery slough. My love for thee has thrown a thousand knotty difficulties in my path But has not yet solved even one of the difficulties caused by thy absence. On the one hand the fear of death offers the intoxication of absence from thee. On the other the delight of reunion with thee offers me the fruition of all my hopes. Though the dead have not risen the tumult of the resurrection has arisen. From the fire which has flamed up from my heart. The eyes of a whole world are suffused with blood by that eyelash of thine. A whole people is sleeping in dust by reason of that collyrium-tinged eye of thine. In both worlds have I lighted the fire of madness. 368 But I have not given in my ode a hint of the secrets of thy love. That heart which I had, steeped in the love of thee Is melted into blood and poured out on my body. From my grief in thy absence I have at the end of each eyelash a cloud which rains sparks. I have in my breast a hundred heaps of fire which burn in thy absence. The eyes of the age have no employment but to gaze upon thee The eyes of principalities and powers are smitten with love in thy service. I desire to be released from the hell of separation from thee By him who wipes out infidelity, who protects the faith, and who guides peoples in the right way.