The Birds Find Their King

by Farid ud-Din Attar

English version by Edward Fitzgerald
Original Language Persian/Farsi

Once more they ventured from the Dust to raise
Their Eyes -- up to the Throne -- into the Blaze,
And in the Centre of the Glory there
Beheld the Figure of -- Themselves -- as 'twere
Transfigured -- looking to Themselves, beheld
The Figure on the Throne en-miracled,
Until their Eyes themselves and That between
Did hesitate which Seer was, which Seen;
They That, That They: Another, yet the Same;
Dividual, yet One: from whom there came
A Voice of awful Answer, scarce discern'd,
From which to Aspiration whose return'd
They scarcely knew; as when some Man apart
Answers aloud the Question in his Heart:
'The Sun of my Perfection is a Glass
Wherein from Seeing into Being pass.'

-- from Poetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty, Edited by Alan Jacobs

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The Birds Find