Like unto a sparrow-hawk, I am flying away from this
world of mysteries, hoping to lift myself to a higher
world; but, fallen, here below, and finding no one worthy
to share my secret thoughts, I go out through the door
by which I entered.
Thou hast put in us an irresistible passion [which is
equivalent to an order from Thee], and, on the other
hand, forbiddest us to give way to it. Poor human
beings are in extreme embarrassment between this order
and this prohibition, for it is as if Thou commandest me
to upset the cup but refrain from spilling the contents.
They are gone, these transients, and no one of them
has returned to tell the secrets concealed behind the curtain.
O devotee! it is by humility that spiritual affairs
take favorable turn and not by prayer, for, what is
prayer without sincerity and humility?
Throw dust upon the vault of heaven and drink some
wine; seek out the fair, for where see you a subject for
pardon, a subject for prayer, since, of all those who
have gone away, no one has returned?
Although on my necklace of duty I have never strung
the pearl of submission, as is Thy due, although never
in my heart have I swept the dust from Thy steps, I
have never despaired reaching the sill of Thy throne of
pity, for never have I importuned Thee with my troubles.