The candle

O Candle! I am also an afflicted person in the world assembly

Constant complaint is my lot in the manner of the rue

Love gave the warmth of internal pathos to you

It made me the florist selling blood-mixed tears

Whether you be the candle of a celebrating assembly or one at the grave

In every condition associated with the tears of sorrow you remain

Your eye views all with equity like the Secret's  Lovers

My eye is the pride of the tumult of discrimination

Your illumination is alike in the Ka‘bah and the temple

I am entangled in the temple and the £aram's discrimination

Your black smoke contains the sigh's elegance

Is some heart hidden in the place of your manifestation?

You burn with pathos due to distance from Tajalli’s  Light

Your pathos the callous ones consider your light

Though you are burning you are unaware of it all

You see but do not encompass the internal pathos

I quiver like mercury with the excitement of vexation

As well I am aware of vexations of the restless heart

This was also the elegance of some Beloved

Which gave me perception of my own pathos

This cognition of mine keeps me restless

Innumerable fire temples are asleep in this spark

Discrimination between high and low is created by this alone!

Fragrance in flower, ecstasy in wine is created by this alone!

Garden, nightingale, flower, fragrance this Cognition is

Root of the struggle of 'I and you' this Cognition is

At creation's dawn as Beauty became the abode of Love

The sound of "Kun" taught warmth to the spirit of Love

The command came Beauty of Kun's garden to witness

With one eye a thousand dreadful dreams to witness

Do not ask me of the nature of the veil of being

The eve of separation was the dawn of my being

Gone are the days when unaware of imprisonment I was

That my abode the adornment of the tree of ñër was

I am a prisoner but consider the cage to be a garden

This exile’s hovel of sorrow I consider the homeland

Memories of the homeland a needless melancholy became

Now the desire for sight, now Longing for search became

O Candle ! Look at the excessive illusion of thought

Look at the end of the one worshipped by celestial denizens

Theme of separation I am, the exalted one I am

Design of the Will of the Universe’s Lord I am

He desired my display as He designed me

When at the head of Existence’   He wrote me

The pearl likes living in a handful of dust

Style may be dull the subject is excellent

Not seeing it rightly is the fault of short-sighted perception

The universe is the show of effulgence of taste for Cognizance

This network of time and space is the scaling ladder of the Universe

It is the necklace of the neck of Eternal Beauty

I have lost the way, Longing for the goal I am

O Candle ! Captive of perception’s illusion I am

I am the hunter as well as the circle of tyranny’s net !

I am the Haram’s roof as well as the bird on Haram’s roof

Am I the Beauty or head to foot the melting love am I ?

It is not clear whether the beloved or the Lover am I ?

I am afraid the old secret may come up to my lips again

Lest story of suffering on the Cross may come up again

Explanatory Notes1. Khudâ : See Chapter 3, paragraph on \