Monday, November 7, 2011

MEDITATION BY HAKIM SANAI

trans. peter lamborn wilson
and
nasrollah pourjavady



Collect your mind's fragments
      that you may fill yourself
         bit by bit with Meaning:
    the slave who meditates
     on the mysteries of Creation
        for sixty minutes
          gains more merit
        than from sixty years
              of fasting and prayer.


Meditation:
    high-soaring hawk
       of Intellect's wrist
                 resting at last
         on the flowering branch
                 of the Heart:
            this world and the next
                   are hidden beneath
                      its folded wing.


Now perched before
                the mud hut
                           which is Earth
                             now clasping with its talons
                                  a branch of the Tree
                                                   of Paradise
                                                        soaring here
                                 striking there -- each moment
                                                 fresh prey
                                 gobbling a mouthful of moonlight
                                             wheeling away
                                                      beyond the sun
                                            darting between the Great Wheel's
                                 star-set spokes, it rips to shreds
                                                    the Footstool and the Throne
                                    a Pigeon's feather
                                                           in its beak --
                                                                            or a comet --
                                                   till finally free of everything
                                                      it alights, silent
                                                            on a topmost bough.


                     Hunting is king's sport,
                                      not just anyone's
                                                     pastime...

                   but you?
                          you've hooded the falcon
                                       -- what can I say? --
                                                  clipped its pinions
                                                        broken its wings...
                                                                                         alas.


circa.   1100 AD

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