Nightingale

A lifetime of anxieties for It, devout this miserable heart
A lifetime has passed us by, while It was with others [1]

O! Gales scatter the dust of Its steps afar
Since that is the guide for the people of vision alight

When nightingale and blossom found Your fragrance in the Gardens [2]
One screams aloud and the other ripping its gown apart

Your arrow easily lands on the wounded heart
That pain shall also pass, since all things are meant to pass us by

Not even talking about Your pain, the bosoms ablaze
Unobservable Your mighty weight, bearing heavy on our eyes [3]

If You yearn to spill the blood of Kamaal
We are on Your blade and striking, that aimed at us

The life has come to an end, alas all tales about to end
The path for this voyage has no corners or verge [4]




[1] Kamaal is in sorrow, no matter how much he devotes himself to the Beloved, he finds It with others and himself left alone. That is an expression in Farsi language of immense love and affection for someone, you say something painful to render the subservience and humility. It does not mean that the Creator spent times with others and ignored Kamaal. It expresses a deep desire to have the Creator to be closer.

[2] Nightingale and flowers used a lot in Farsi poetry. However from poet to poet they mean something different. Kamaal’s paradigm here is that of someone sobbing and screaming for their beloved i.e. the nightingale singing and ripping their gowns because of immense pain. The ripping is the breaking and tearing the sheath of a bud for a blossom to bloom. This comes from Koranic expressions of Allah’s knowledge Fussilat [41:47] :

"To Him is referred the Knowledge of the Hour (of Judgment: He knows all): No date-fruit comes out of its sheath, nor does a female conceive (within her womb) nor bring forth the Day that ((Allah)) will propound to them the (question), "Where are the partners (ye attributed to Me?" They will say, "We do assure thee not one of us can bear witness!" "



[3] Mighty weight from Koran Al-muzzammil [73:5] :

"Soon shall We send down to thee a weighty Message."


[4] This is a reoccurring imagery quite common amongst the Sufi poets. Shore-less ocean is the description of the voyage for the traveler (Salek). This is again another contradictory ambiguity means to fuel the passion in the heart of a Salek to know that this voyage towards the Creator is no ordinary travel.


Background: Nightingale and rose from ancient Roman wall paintings. 

© 2003-2002,  By Dara Shayda