The Dullard Sage
by Farid ud-Din AttarEnglish version by Peter Lamborn Wilson and Nasrollah Pourjavady
Original Language Persian/Farsi
Lost in myself
I reappeared
I know not where
a drop that rose
from the sea and fell
and dissolved again;
a shadow
that stretched itself out
at dawn,
when the sun
reached noon
I disappeared.
I have no news
of my coming
or passing away--
the whole thing
happened quicker
than a breath;
ask no questions
of the moth.
In the candle flame
of his face
I have forgotten
all the answers.
In the way of love
there must be knowledge
and ignorance
so I have become
both a dullard
and a sage;
one must be
an eye and yet
not see
so I am blind
and yet I still
perceive,
Dust
be on my head
if I can say
where I
in bewilderment
have wandered:
Attar
watched his heart
transcend both worlds
and under its shadow
now is gone mad
with love.
-- from The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry, Translated by Peter Lamborn Wilson / Translated by Nasrollah Pourjavady |
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/ Image by Chico.Ferreira /
View All Poems by Farid ud-Din Attar
To all you wise, wondrous sages, a reminder from Attar to also be a dullard.
Knowledge requires mind and conceptualization, the parceling out of reality into small pieces that can be thought about and communicated. True merging with the Divine draws us into the unbroken Unity. When the light of this unbroken awareness shines fully, even the sense of a separate self is lost --
a shadow
that stretched itself out
at dawn,
when the sun
reached noon
I disappeared.
This Wholeness is an awareness that is too great to be comprehended by the limited mind. One naturally falls into the all-encompassing silence of that sacred merging...
ask no questions
of the moth.
In the candle flame
of his face
I have forgotten
all the answers.
"In the way of love / there must be knowledge / and ignorance..." There must be knowledge as we each walk the path, so we can see each step as we take it. But ultimately there must be "ignorance" because, once the last step is taken, nothing can be said about it. Actually, we don't take the final step, it takes us. Who is left then to speak or to know? What is left to know anything about? It is the step that swallows the universe into Oneness and leaves us dumbfounded.
Attar's advice: Become both a dullard and a sage, and go mad with love!
Recommended Books: Farid ud-Din Attar