Sufi Poetry: Spring

Spring 1
It is the 21st of March. Spring has started! The Kashf-al-Asrar or ‘Unveiling of Secrets’ is a Persian book attributed to Khwaja Mo’inuddin Chishti:

The life of a human being knows four seasons,
just like the world knows four seasons.
The days of childhood are therefore the summer.
The years of youth are the harvest of spring.
The time that passes passively is autumn
And the years of old age are the harvest of autumn.

Spring 2
You can find his in the Masnavi:

Behold the garden of the heart, green and moist and fresh,
full of rosebuds and cypresses and jasmines;
Boughs hidden by the multitude of leaves,
vast plain and high palace hidden by the multitude of flowers.
These words, which are from Universal Reason,
are the scent of those flowers and cypresses and hyacinths.
Did you (ever) smell the scent of a rose where no rose was?
Did you (ever) see the foaming of wine where no wine was?
The scent is your guide and conducts you on your way;
it will bring you to Eden and Kawthar.
The scent is a remedy for the (sightless) eye;
(it is) light-making: the eye of Jacob was opened by a scent.

Spring 3
The ‘King of the Poets’ Bahar has written this quatrain:

Parhiz az khud ke jaa’i parhiz injaast
Waz kas matlab chiz ke har chiz injaast
Taa chand pai raaz-e-khodaa migardi
Raaz-e-del-e-khud ju ke khodaa niz injaast

Abstain from your ego, because the place to abstain is here.
Do not ask things from others, because every thing is here.
How long will you search for the divine secret?
Search for the secret of your heart, because God is also here.

Spring 4
A well-known lover of spring has said:

This breath of the abdal (the changed ones) is from that spiritual spring: from it there grows a green garden in heart and soul. In him who is fortunate, their breaths produce the same effect as that of the spring rain on the tree.

The Prophet said, “Take heed, my friends! Do not cover your bodies from the cold of spring, for it does to your spirits the same thing that spring does to the trees, but flee from the cold of autumn, for it does what autumn did to the garden and the vines”.

The storytellers have referred to the outer meaning of this saying, and have contented themselves with that same outer form. In the sight of God that “autumn” is the flesh (nafs) and its desires: reason and soul are the essence of spring and everlasting life. Therefore, according to the right interpretation, the meaning is this, that the holy breaths are like spring and the life of leaf and vine. Do not cover your body from the sayings of the awliya, whether soft or rough, for they are the support of your religion. Whether the wali speaks hot or cold, receive his words with joy: in doing so you will escape from the hot and cold of Nature and from Hellfire. His “hot” and “cold” is life’s new season of spring, the source of sincerity, faith and service.

Spring 5
Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt – marvelous error! –
that a spring was breaking in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
Water of a new life
That I have never drunk.

Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt – marvelous error –
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.

Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt – marvelous error! –
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.

Last night, as I slept,
I dreamt – marvelous error! –
that it was God I had
here inside my heart.

Spring 6
The poet Bahar has this to say:

Maa dars-e-sadaaqat o safaa mikhaanim
Aayin mahabbat o wafaa midaanim
Zin bi honaraan-e-sefla makhorush
Kaanhaa hama mirawand o maa mimaanim

I have learned the lessons of sincerity and purity.
I know the customs of love and loyalty.
O heart, don’t cry out about these ignorant and mean people!
I’ll remain, but they’ll all go away.

Spring 7
Spring has come; break your repentance!
You can become a Sufi later.