https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYM-uyAkrnA Translation: Give me an excess of love for you and wonder And have mercy on a heart scorched by a glance of your love And if I ask to see you truly Then allow me, graciously And let not your answer be, “Thou shalt not see“ O heart, you have promised me…
Ḥallāj: Amazed by you and me…
Ḥallāj: Translation: Amazed by you and by me, O you, the desire of the desirers You drew me closer to thee, until I thought that you were me I vanished in ecstasy until you erased me from myself by thee O my blessing in life and my rest after death I have no intimacy with…
Blow winds, blow
Ḥallāj: Translation (a bit of license taken): O wind of the dawn, I say to the gazelle it only makes me thirstier, the water of this well I have a beloved whose love lives within me And if she likes, she walks on my cheeks as well Her spirit is my spirit and my…
My art is loving that beauty
Translation: Go tell the faqih for me My art is loving that beauty My drink is with him, from the glass and the Ḥaḍra, with those gathered round and my dear friends around me lifted all my burdens from me Go tell the faqih for me My art is loving that beauty Which Way do you…
Andalusian Sufi Medley
This great recording starts with a poem by al-Ḥarrāq and then includes another poem of Shushtari’s, included in another fine recording below: Translation: I got what I sought When I see my love I see my Self Why am I tired and abandoned while I am the beloved? My secret is hidden from me, yet…
Ah Layla…
While there are many great poems about Layla, I’ve never read anything better than these two little gems from Shushtari… Translation: Layla robbed me of my reason I said, O Layla, have mercy on [those you have] slain Her love is hidden enshrined in my bones O you who are entranced by her Humble…
Words of love…
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…