LVII

The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, by Ibn al-Arabi, tr. Reynold A. Nicholson, [1911], at sacred-texts.com

LVII

1. O breeze of the wind, bear to the gazelles of Najd this message: 'I am faithful to the covenant which ye know.'

2. And say to the young girl of the tribe, 'Our trysting-place is at the guarded pasture beside the hills of Najd on the Sabbath morn,

3. On the red hill towards the cairns and on the right hand of the rivulets and the solitary landmark.'

4. And if her words be true and she feel the same tormenting desire for me as I feel

5. For her, then we shall meet covertly in the heat of noon at her tent with the most inviolable troth,

6. And she and I will communicate what we suffer of love and sore tribulation and grievous pain.

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7. Is this a vague dream or glad tidings revealed in sleep or the speech of an hour in whose speech was my happy fortune?

8. Perchance he who brought the objects of desire (into my heart) will bring them face to face with me, and their gardens will bestow on me the gathered roses.

COMMENTARY

1. 'O breeze of the wind,' i.e. the subtle spiritual sense which gnostics use as a medium of communication.

'The gazelles of Najd,' i.e. the exalted spirits.

2. 'The young girl of the tribe,' i.e. the spirit especially akin to himself.

3. 'The red hill,' i.e. the station of beauty, since red is the fairest of all the colours.

'The solitary landmark,' i.e. the Divine singleness (###), which is inferior to oneness (###).

5. 'In the heat of noon,' i.e. in the station of equilibrium (###).

7. 'Is this a vague dream?' (cf. Kor. xii, 44), i.e. this union is impossible, for my spirit cannot escape from the corporeal world.