Hakim Sanai 5

There is no place for place!

by Hakim Sanai

English version by Ivan M. Granger
Original Language Persian/Farsi

There is no place for place!
How can a place
house the maker of all space,
or the vast sky enclose
     the maker of heaven?

He told me:
"I am a homeless treasure.
The world was made
to give you a place to stand
     and see me."

Tell me, if the one you seek
is placeless,
why put your shoes on?
The real road
is found by polishing, polishing
     the mirror of your heart.

Until you are complete

by Hakim Sanai

English version by D. L. Pendlebury
Original Language Persian/Farsi

Until you are complete,
a bridge has been prepared;
but once you have become complete,
what are bridge and river to you?

We tried reasoning

by Hakim Sanai

English version by D.L. Pendlebury
Original Language Persian/Farsi

We tried reasoning
our way to him;
it didn't work;
but the moment we gave up,
no obstacle remained.

When he admits you to his presence

by Hakim Sanai

English version by D.L. Pendlebury
Original Language Persian/Farsi

When he admits you to his presence
ask from him nothing other than himself.
When he has chosen you for a friend,
you have seen all that there is to see.
There's no duality in the world of love:
what's all this talk of 'you' and 'me'?
How can you fill a cup that's full already?
 

Your intellect is just a hotch-potch

by Hakim Sanai

English version by D.L. Pendlebury
Original Language Persian/Farsi

Your intellect is just a hotch-potch ( a jumbled mixture)
of guesswork and thought,
limping over the face of the earth;
wherever they are, he is not;
they are contained within his creation.
Man and his reason are just the latest
ripening plants in his garden.
Whatever you assert about his nature,
you are bound to be out of your depth,
like a blind man trying to describe
the appearance of his own mother.
While reason is still tracking down the secret,
you end your quest on the open field of love.

Hakim Sanai 4

Naked in the Bee-House

by Hakim Sanai

English version by Coleman Barks
Original Language Persian/Farsi

Being humble is right for you now.
Don't thrash (To move wildly or violently) around showing your strength.

You're naked in the bee-house!
It doesn't matter how powerful
your arms and legs are.

To God, that is more of a lie
than your weakness is.

In his doorway your prestige
and your physical energy are just dust
on your face. Be helpless
and completely poor.

And don't try to meet his eye!
That's like signing a paper
that honors yourself.

If you can take care of things, do so!
But when you're living at home with God,
you neither sew the world together
with desires nor tear it apart
with disappointments.

In that place existence itself
is illusion. All that is, is one.

Lost in that, your personal form
becomes a vast, empty mosque.

When you hold on to yourself,
you're a fire-worshipping temple.
Dissolve, and let everything get done.
When you don't, you're an untrained colt (A youthful / inexperienced person; a novice.),
full of erratic loving and biting.
Loyal sometimes, then treacherous.

Be more like the servant who owns nothing
and is neither hungry nor satisfied,
who has no hopes for anything,
and no fear of anyone.

An owl living near the king's palace
is considered a bird of misfortune,
ragged and ominous. But off in the woods,
sitting alone, its feathers grow splendid
and sleek like the Phoenix restored.

Musk should not be kept near water or heat.
The dampness and the dryness spoil
its fragrance. But when the musk is at home
in the musk bladder, fire and wetness
mean nothing. In God's doorway your guilt
and your virtue don't count.

Whether you're Muslim, or Christian, or
fire - worshipper , the categories disappear.

You're seeking, and God is what is
sought, the essence beyond any cause.

External theological learning moves like a moon
and fades when the sun of experience rises.

We are here for a week, or less.
We arrive and leave almost simultaneously.

To be is not to be.

The Qur'an says, "They go hastening,
with the Light running on before them."

Clear the way! Muhammed says, "How fine!"
A sigh goes out, and there is union.

Forget how you came to this gate, your history.
Let that be as if it had not been.

Do you think the day plans its course
by what the rooster says?

God does not depend on any of his creatures.
Your existence or non-existence is insignificant.
Many like you have come here before.

When the fountain of light is pouring,
there's no need to urge it on!
That's like a handful of straw
trying to help the sun. "This way!
Please, let this light through!"

The sun doesn't need an announcer.
The lamp you carry is your self-reliance.
The sun is something else!

Half a sneeze might extinguish your langern,
whereas all a winter's windiness
cannot put That out.

The road you must take has no particular name.
It's the one composed of your own sighing
and giving up. What you've been doing
is not devotion. Your hoping and worrying
are like donkeys wandering loose,
sometimes docile, or suddenly mean.

Your face looks wise at times,
and ashamed at others.

There is another way, a pure blankness
where those are one expression.

Omar once saw a group of boys on the road
challenging each other to wrestle.
They were all claiming to be champions,
but when Omar, the fierce and accomplished
warrior, came near, they scattered.

All but one, Abdullah Zubair.
Omar asked, "Why didn't you run?"

"Why should I? You are not a tyrant,
and I am not guilty."

When someone knows his own inner value,
he doesn't care about being accepted
or rejected by anyone else.

The prince here is strong and just.
Stand wondering in his presence.
There is nothing but That.

No tongue can tell Your secret

by Hakim Sanai

English version by Priya Hemenway
Original Language Persian/Farsi

No tongue can tell Your secret
for the measure of the word obscures Your nature.
But the gift of the ear
is that it hears
what the tongue cannot tell.

Hakim Sanai 3

The way to You

by Hakim Sanai

English version by Priya Hemenway
Original Language Persian/Farsi

The way to You
lies clearly in my heart
and cannot be seen or known to the mind.
As my words turn to silence,
Your sweetness surrounds me.

The Wild Rose of Praise

by Hakim Sanai

English version by Coleman Barks
Original Language Persian/Farsi

Those unable to grieve,
or to speak of their love,
or to be grateful, those
who can't remember God
as the source of everything,

might be described as a vacant wind,
or a cold anvil, or a group
of frightened old people.

Say the Name. Moisten your tongue
with praise, and be the spring ground,
waking. Let your mouth be given
its gold-yellow stamen like the wild rose's.

As you fill with wisdom,
and your heart with love,
there's no more thirst.

There's only unselfed patience
waiting on the doorsill, a silence
which doesn't listen to advice
from people passing in the street.

Then through that dim murkiness

by Hakim Sanai

English version by Coleman Barks
Original Language Persian/Farsi

Then through that dim murkiness,
I saw an old man with a radiant face.

"You are the moon!" I called out.
"Where did you come from?"

"I am beyond substance and space.
I am creation's cause, here to lead you
back to your home. Hold close.
and let my fire consume you. Don't be afraid
of losing your strength here. This fire
is one which has a spring of eternal water
inside it. As your animal-soul dies,
your new soul will be born.
Live humbly with me, and I will
raise you into majesty."

He talked more to me in silence,
without using syllables. He gave me
love and light and eyes to see,
and together we set out.

Hakim Sanai 2

Streaming

by Hakim Sanai

English version by Coleman Barks
Original Language Persian/Farsi

When the path ignites a soul,
there's no remaining in place.

The foot touches ground,
but not for long.

The way where love tells its secret
stays always in motion,
and there is no you there, and no reason.

The rider urges his horse to gallop,
and so doing, throws himself
under the flying hooves.

In love-unity there's no old or new.
Everything is nothing.
God alone is.

For lovers the phenomena-veil is very transparent,
and the delicate tracings on it cannot
be explained with language.

Clouds burn off as the sun rises,
and the love-world floods with light.

But cloud-water can be obscuring,
as well as useful.

There is an affection that covers the glory,
rather than dissolving into it.

It's a subtle difference,
like the change in Persian
from the word "friendship"
to the word "work."

That happens with just a dot
above or below the third letter.

There is a seeing of the beauty
of union that doesn't actively work
for the inner conversation.

Your hand and feet must move,
as a stream streams, working
as its Self, to get to the ocean.
Then there's no more mention
of the search.

Being famous, or being a disgrace,
who's ahead or behind, these considerations
are rocks and clogged places
that slow you. Be as naked as a wheat grain
out of its husk and sleek as Adam.

Don't ask for anything other
than the presence.

Don't speak of a "you"
apart from That.

A full container cannot be more full.
Be whole, and nothing.

Take everything away

by Hakim Sanai

English version by Priya Hemenway
Original Language Persian/Farsi

Take everything away
and leave me alone with You.
Close every door
and open the one to You.

The Good Darkness

by Hakim Sanai

English version by Coleman Barks
Original Language Persian/Farsi

There is great joy in darkness.
Deepen it.

Blushing embarrassments
in the half-light
confuse,

but a scorched, blackened, face
can laugh like an Ethiopian,
or a candled moth,
coming closer to God.

Brighter than any moon, Bilal,
Muhammed's Black Friend,
shadowed him on the night journey.

Keep your deepest secret hidden
in the dark beneath daylight's
uncovering and night's spreading veil.

Whatever's given you by those two
is for your desires. They poison,
eventually. Deeper down, where your face
gets erased, where life-water runs silently,

there's a prison with no food and drink,
and no moral instruction, that opens on a garden
where there's only God. No self,
only the creation-word, BE.

You, listening to me, roll up the carpet
of time and space. Step beyond,
into the one word.

In blindness, receive what I say.
Take "There is no good..."
for your wealth and your strength.

Let "There is nothing..." be
a love-wisdom in your wine.

The Way of the Holy Ones

by Hakim Sanai

English version by Andrew Harvey
Original Language Persian/Farsi

Don't speak of your suffering -- He is speaking.
Don't look for Him everywhere -- He's looking for you.

An ant's foot touches a leaf, He senses it;
A pebble shifts in a stream bed, He knows it.

If there's a worm hidden deep in a rock,
He'll know its body, tinier than an atom,

The sound of its praise, its secret ecstasy --
All this He knows by divine knowing.

He has given the tiniest worm its food;
He has opened to you the Way of the Holy Ones.

Hakim Sanai 1

And if, my friend, you ask me the way

by Hakim Sanai

English version by D.L. Pendlebury
Original Language Persian/Farsi

And if, my friend, you ask me the way,
I'll tell you plainly, it is this:
to turn your face toward the world of life,
and turn your back on rank and reputation;
and, spurning outward prosperity, to bend
your back double in his service;
to part company with those who deal in words,
and take your place in the presence of the wordless.

Belief and unbelief

by Hakim Sanai

English version by D.L. Pendlebury
Original Language Persian/Farsi

Belief and unbelief
both have their origin
in your hypocrite's heart;
the way is only long
because you delay to start on it:
one single step
would bring you to him:
become a slave,
and you will be a king.

Belief brings me close to You

by Hakim Sanai

English version by Priya Hemenway
Original Language Persian/Farsi

Belief brings me close to You
but only to the door.
It is only by disappearing into
Your mystery
that I will come in.

Bloom Like a Rose

by Hakim Sanai

English version by David and Sabrineh Fideler
Original Language Persian/Farsi

Your heartrending (causing or expressing intense grief, anguish, or distress )
fire made me bloom like a rose.

I died at your feet
and returned fast to life.

My inborn freedom
offered nothing in profit;
but now I am free,
since becoming your slave.

Love's conqueror is he

by Hakim Sanai

English version by D.L. Pendlebury
Original Language Persian/Farsi

Love's conqueror is he
whom love conquers.
Apply yourself, hand and foot,
to the search;
but when you reach the sea,
stop talking of the stream.

Mystic Chat

by Hakim Sanai

English version by Peter Lamborn Wilson and Nasrollah Pourjavady
Original Language Persian/Farsi

My dear!
You haven't the feet
for this path --
why struggle?
You've no idea where
the idol's to be found --
what's all this
mystic chat?
What can be done
with quarrelsome
fellow travelers,
boastful
marketplace
morons?
If you were really a lover
you'd see that faith and infidelity
are one...
Oh, what's the use?
nit-picking (Minute, trivial, unnecessary, and unjustified criticism or faultfinding) 
about such things
is a hobby for
numb brains.
You are pure spirit
but imagine yourself a corpse!
pure water which thinks
it's the pot!
Everything you want
must be searched for --
except the Friend.
If you don't find Him
you'll never
be able
to start
to even
look.
Yes,
you can be sure:
You are not Him --
unless
you can remove yourself
from between
yourself
and Him --
in which case
you
are
Him.