SONG OF SEYD NIMETOLLAH OF KUHISTAN

Spin the ball! I reel, I burn,

Nor head from foot can I discern,

Nor my heart from love of mine,

Nor the wine-cup from the wine.

All my doing, all my leaving,

Reaches not to my perceiving;

Lost in whirling spheres I rove,

And know only that I love.

I am seeker of the stone,

Living gem of Solomon;

From the shore of souls arrived,

In the sea of sense I dived;

But what is land, or what is wave,

To me who only jewels crave?

Love is the air-fed fire intense,

And my heart the frankincense;

As the rich aloes flames, I glow,

Yet the censer cannot know.

I'm all-knowing, yet unknowing;

Stand not, pause not, in my going.

Ask not me, as Muftis can,

To recite the Alcoran;

Well I love the meaning sweet,—

I tread the book beneath my feet.

Lo! the God's love blazes higher,

Till all difference expire.

What are Moslems? what are Giaours?

All are Love's, and all are ours.

I embrace the true believers,

But I reck not of deceivers.

Firm to Heaven my bosom clings,

Heedless of inferior things;

Down on earth there, underfoot,

What men chatter know I not.