Badruddin + 

Seek what you shall e’er possess, + 

O Badruddin, + 

Although it be a will-o’-the-wisp + 

Of the Unseen, + 

Which you may never behold + 

Until my suns and satellites are cold. + 

And in the seeking you shall find + 

The hidden jewels of the soul and mind; + 

And every jewel shall reveal + 

Things divine + 

Even in a Sufi’s logic wheel, + 

Yea, even in the lowing kine. + 

The eyewash, O lone Badruddin, I bring + 

Is of the first dews of the first-born spring. + 

Apply it and behold! + 

Your dog-bitten sandals are transformed into gold; + 

Your staff, sand-eaten and far-wandering, + 

Is bursting into foliage, blossoming, + 

Bearing fruits of wondrous lush and glow; + 

And underneath the heavy-laden tree + 

A maid, whose face dispels all human woe, + 

Is cooking sesame for you and me. + 

Cast off the garments of the world + 

And wear the sacred shades, + 

Whose color of contentment never fades, + 

And sit beside me with the golden fawn, + 

Whose name is Eternal Dawn. + 

O thou Belovéd, every word of thine + 

Is like a draught of purple wine; + 

Every syllable + 

Is like the singing of the bulbul. + 

More potent are they than the magic lore + 

Which to the blind the sight restore, + 

As now to one, who though a pilgrim old, + 

Is but an infant in the cradle of love. + 

Yea, O thou incomparably Sweet, + 

Thy words are to mine eyes a healing kohl, + 

Musk to my nostrils, balm to my soul, + 

Strengthening ointments to my feet. + 

And what, in the stores and treasures of the world, + 

Is equal unto this? + 

Wealth and Beauty, Fame and Power, + 

They are but mirages in the boundless waste + 

That separates me from thee⁠—for an hour. + 

Once I tarried at a Well in an Oasis fair + 

But in the cup I lifted to my lips + 

I saw the image of thy wrath + 

And my despair:⁠— + 

I dashed against a rock the common clay + 

And hastened away. + 

Now, O thou Beloved, I come to thee: + 

With thy beauty drunk and dumb; + 

Burdened with thy wealth, and lame; + 

Ushered by thy liveried Fame; + 

In thy glory garbed I come. + 

But I tremble at thy threshold lest the thorns in my feet + 

The story of my sacrifice repeat; + 

I tremble at thy threshold lest the flowers of my heart + 

Betray the painted lips of conscious art; + 

I tremble at thy threshold lest the eyes + 

That long have sought to behold but once thy face, + 

Deserve not even thy shadow to embrace. + 