When we came together

by Muhyiddin ibn Arabi

English version by Maurice Gloton
Original Language Arabic

When we came together
     to bid each other adieu
You would have thought that we were
Like a double letter
At the moment of union and embrace.

Even if we are made up
Of a double nature,
Our glances see only
One unified being...

I am absent and therefore desire
Causes my soul to pass away.
Meeting does not cure me
Because it persists both in absence
     and in presence.

Meeting her produced in me
That which I had not imagined at all.
Healing is a new ill,
Which comes of ecstasy...

Because as for me, I see a being
Whose beauty increases,
Brilliant and superb
At every one of our meetings.

One does not escape in ecstasy
That exists in kinship
With beauty that continues to intensify
To the point of perfect harmony.

-- from Perfect Harmony: (Calligrapher's Notebooks) , by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi

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Music of a Distant Drum: Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish & Hebrew Poems Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Quran, Miraj, Poetic and Theological Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality) The Mystics of Islam Stations of Desire: Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi and New Poems Perfect Harmony: (Calligrapher's Notebooks)
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When we came