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Yet never qualify me (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)

by Umar Ibn al-Farid
(1181 - 1235) Timeline

English version by
Th. Emil Homerin

Original Language
Arabic

Muslim / Sufi
13th Century

Yet never qualify me
     as a companion near,
          which I regard an outrageous crime
               severing the rule of union.

For my arrival is my parting,
     my nearness, being far;
          my loving, my loathing,
               my beginning, my end.

By "her" I alluded to myself --
     and I meant none but me;
          for her sake I stripped off
               my name, namesake, and fame,

And set out far beyond
     where those before stood still,
          where minds went astray on accustomed paths,
               died and disappeared.

I have no attribute;
     that is a stamp, as a name is a brand,
          but if you must, speak of me
               allusively or with metaphor.

I ascended from "I am she"
     to where there is no "to,"
          sweetening my existence
               by my return

From "I am I,"
     for an inner wisdom
          and outer laws
               to begin my call.

 

 

-- from Umar Ibn al-Farid: Sufi Verses, Saintly Life, Translated by Th. Emil Homerin

Amazon.com

 

Themes

  Death
 
 
 
 


Recommended Books


From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint: Ibn Al-Farid, His Verse, and His Shrine, by Th. Emil Homerin
Sufi Poems: A Mediaeval Anthology, Translated by Martin Lings
Umar Ibn al-Farid: Sufi Verses, Saintly Life, Translated by Th. Emil Homerin
The Wine of Love and Life: Ibn Al-Farid's Al-Khamriyah and Al-Qaysari's Quest for Meaning, by Dawud Ibn Mahmud Qaysari

 

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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
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