If you were out of your self like we are,
if you were also drunk,
you would have already broken the halo around the moon,
ascended the heights of the sky and sat there.
If you were to worship Absence,
how could you listen to the words of this one or that one?
How could you suffer from this trouble, that trouble?
Or, how could you worry about collecting gold or silver?
You would wake up in the middle of the night,
becoming the company of the Sultan of the Invisible City.
You would break the glass of joy on the head of sorrow.
O Beauty who gives the help of life as alms,
you have tied my heart to the hair of the One
who snatched my heart.
A drunk lover doesn’t know bashfulness.
If you had ever pledged Elest,*
you wouldn’t worry about anything.
If you were stunned by Divine Wine,
you wouldn’t worry about name or fame.
If you were an alligator like me,
you wouldn’t be in the net now.
Our Drunk came again, offering us a glass.
If He were to give you the same glass,
you would rejoice.
You would be generous.
If you do see His glass, you will never forget.
If you see His hands which offer that Divine Wine,
you would lose your own hands.
His Joseph-liking face makes the mind leave its place.
If you were to see His face just once,
you would lose your arms and hands.
If you get up on time, why are your steps so loose?
If you are straight like an arrow,
why do you fly away?
Be silent. If you are aware of silence,
you become absent at the time of talk.
Come back in the time of silence.
*Elest “Am I not your God?” Quran.
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 21, Ghazal 90, verses 959-969, pages 196-197.