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Wisdom, especially spiritual wisdom, is more than just knowledge; it is sound judgment and discernment. It is knowing what to pursue and what to let go, what to long for and what to flee. The stages that mark the wayfarers’ journey from their mortal abode to the heavenly…
Wisdom, especially spiritual wisdom, is more than just knowledge; it is sound judgment and discernment. It is knowing what to pursue and what to let go, what to long for and what to flee.
Sundown. Sea Point Promenade, Sea Point, South Africa, 2011
Although most of the Tablets in this collection were revealed during Bahá’u’lláh’s sojourn in ‘Iráq (1853–1863), the first, the poem known as “Rashḥ-i-‘Amá”, was written in 1852 in the Síyáh-Chál and is among the few He revealed while in His native land of Persia, and in verse.
Bahá’u’lláh recounts: “During the days I lay in the prison of Ṭihrán, though the galling weight of the chains and the stench-filled air allowed Me but little sleep, still in those infrequent moments of slumber I felt as if something flowed from the crown of My head over My breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitateth itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain.”
“I have hearkened to the song of the nightingale of knowledge upon the twigs of the tree of thine inmost being, and to the cooing of the dove of certitude upon the branches of the bower of thine heart. Methinks I inhaled the fragrance of purity from the raiment of thy love and, in perusing thy letter, attained thy very presence. I noted, moreover, thine allusions to thy death in God and thy life through Him, and the love thou dost cherish for the beloved of the Lord and for the Manifestations of His names and the Exponents of His attributes. I have purposed, therefore, to acquaint thee with holy and resplendent tokens from the realms of might and glory, that haply they may draw thee nigh unto the court of holiness, nearness, and beauty, and draw thee to a station wherein thou shalt see naught in all existence but the hallowed Countenance of thy Beloved, and wilt behold all of creation as a day wherein none was deemed worthy of mention.”
—Bahá’u’lláh
“Of this did the nightingale of oneness sing in the garden of his mystical treatise,14 saying, “And there shall appear upon the tablet of thine heart an inscription of the subtle mysteries of the verse ‘Fear ye God; God will teach you’, and the bird of thy spirit shall recall the sanctuaries of ancient splendour, and soar upon the wings of longing into the heaven of the command ‘Walk the beaten paths of thy Lord’, and partake of the choice fruits of communion in the gardens of the utterance ‘Feed, moreover, on every kind of fruit.
—Bahá’u’lláh
Selected Mystical Works of Hafez
“The first poem by Hafez to appear in English was the work of Sir William Jones (q.v.; 1746-94). His translation of the “Tork-e šīrāzī” ghazal(q.v.), both in prose and verse, as a “Persian Song” (Jones 1771, pp. 135-40), set a precedent for later translators. The rest of the 18th century produced very little, though the translation by John Nott (1751-1825) is worthy of note. Since the beginning of the 19th century, however, Hafez has become the most translated of the Persian poets.”
O gentle weariness
Thine is the power that can all spirits free
From bonding-trouble, thou art a goddess
To all the suffering slaves of misery.
Thy sanctuary
No suppliant vainly seeketh; wheresoe’er
Desperate grief is, then unfailingly
Is thine all-hallowing rest & refuge there.
Our sorrow hath outgrown
Solace, yet still in thine all-mothering hand
Is balm of soft oblivion, who alone
Our never-ending needs dost understand.
—Hafez
When the strong climber his last mountain-crest
Attaineth, & the point for which he strove
Is reached, & his desire made manifest,
& seating him the topmost heights above
He gazeth on each aspect leisurely,
Considering the path by which he clomb
& which so many attempted, & how he
The first of all his race had strength to come
Unto that eminence, & how this throne
Shall men hereafter to his name recall;
Then more than ever is he strangely lone,
Seeing earth’s dwellings spread out far & small;
& more unfathom’d seemeth & more high,
Eternal heaven’s unchanged immensity.
—Hafez
“Translations of Hafiz into English”: Encyclopedia Iranica.
Reference: Project Gutenberg’s Sonnets from Hafez & Other
Verses, by Elizabeth Bridges. Download PDF.