Translation: There are words we kiss, As if they had mouths Words of love of hope, Immense love, crazy hope Naked words that kiss you When the night loses taste, Words that refuse, The walls of your sorrow. Suddenly, colorful, Between words without color, Expected, unexpected Like poetry, love. The name of the beloved, Revealed…
I began by mentioning my love…
Legend has it that Shushtari’s master gave him a tambourine and made him sing in the market for his money (probably as a way of teaching the young nobleman humility). He kept repeating the first line of this song over and over again, unable to come up with anything else, until inspiration struck, and the…
Andalusian Love Songs: Shushtari and Camaron (part 2)
Translation: You who took my heart from me, your love stole my senses You hid me from myself, and in myself, I don’t appear I’m hidden form my sight, as if I were invisible So I went out to look for me, maybe I’ll find myself… Love of the beautiful, o brother, is my art…
Andalusian Love songs: Shushtari and Camaron
The poems of the Andalusian Sufi, Abu’l-Hasan Shushtari (d. 1269) parallel and perhaps indirectly influenced some of my favorite Flamenco lyrics. Compare this pair of songs: Your love for me is not a fantasy However much they forbid that I love you, like a jib to the water I will resist. Only your tender love…
Deep Songs from Spain
A collection of some lovely Flamenco lyrics The sighs that come from me and those that come from you, if they meet on their way what things they will say! Original: Suspiros que de mí salgan y otros que de ti saldrán, si en el camino se encuentran ¡qué de cosas se dirán! If blood…
The name “Allah”
Translation: Alif before double lam and Ha-the delight of the eye Alif proclaims the name with two lams without body and Ha is the sign of the writing “Secret” is spelled with two letters. There is a name with no place. Read these letters together. You will see by them, the heart is satisfied and forgets its past trials…
Shushtari in Song
One of the most powerful recordings of Sufi music, this medley of Shustari’s poetry begins with the following poem: Translation: They are my sweetest moments when you are joined with my essence When you are with my essence The sun of intimacy dawns in me My poverty came to me naturally And existence…
Shakespeare, Shushtari, and the Sultan
Sonnet 29 When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself, and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man’s art, and…
The wine was so fine…
The following was one of Ibn ‘Arabi’s favorite verses of poetry, oft-quoted by Sufi authors ranging from al-Ghazzali to Fakhr ad-din ‘Iraqi to Emir ‘abd al-Qadir to explain the mysterious relationship between God and the heart. The glass was so clear, and so was the wine they became so similar, that it became…
Hafez on Ramadan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or3Jxc76wtA Translation: In the month of Sha’aban, do not neglect the glass of wine This sun will disappear untl the ‘Eid of Ramadan Original: ماه شعبان منه از دست قدح کاین خورشید از نظر تا شب عید رمضان خواهد شد Translation: Come…