A sugar buyer comes, saying,
“A caravan has arrived from Egypt.”
Hundreds of camels come loaded with sugar cane.
O my God, what a beautiful gift.
Suddenly, and this is in the middle of the night,
a candle is brought in and life comes to this dead one’s body.
I say, “Talk openly.”
He says, “So and so has come.”
My heart jumps swiftly out of its place
and puts up a ladder at the top of my mind.
My heart runs toward the roof accompanied by Love.
It looks for evidence of that news.
Suddenly, it sees a new world,
entirely different from ours.
A sea which covers the whole world is inside of a jar.
A sky is in the shape of the Earth.
A sultan is seated on the roof
dressed in the uniform of a guard.
A garden, meadow and endless paradise
are all in the heart of the gardener.
This image keeps moving in my heart,
telling all about the Sultan of hearts.
O One whose image is in my eye, don’t run away.
Stay for awhile, so my heart will be refreshed.
Shems of Tebriz has seen the world of Absence
and has dwelled in that world.
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 14, Gazel 197, verses 2174-2186, pages 139-140.