Celestial Lights in Praise of
The Best of Creation
sallAllahu aleyhi wasallam
Known as The Poem of The Cloak
of the noble Imam Abu Abdullah Muhammad Bin Said al-Busiri
Translated by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf
Chapter (1) On Lyrical Love
Yearning
Is it from recollection of neighbours in the valley of Dhi Salami
That you mix tears with blood as they flow from your eyes?
Or perhaps sweet breezes blowing from Kadhima's direction?
Or bolts of lightning that flash in the depths of Mount Iddam?
What's wrong with your eyes? You say, "stop!"
But that only increases their painful downpour;
Or your heart? You say, "Wake up!"
Bit it wanders even further astray in distraction!
Does someone so fooled with love think it can be hid
Behind such a downpour of tears or a heart's raging fires?
Without love's passion you would never have wept so over the traces
of your beloved's camp
Nor spent sleepless nights recalling the fragrance of a willow or the
mountain your darling walked in.
Nor would the mere memory of tents and those who dwelt there
Have draped you in mourning clothes, weeping and wasting away.
How can you deny such a love, when true tears
And real heartbreak testify so strongly against you?
The sorrow of love has etched two salty troughs down your face
And branded gaunt marks on it as pallid as yellow and blood-red roses.
How true! In the night a vision of the one I long for came and
deprived me of sleep.
But love is famous for impending pleasures with pain!
O you who fault me for this vestal love, accept my excuse
Yet it you judged fairly, you would find me blameless.
May you never have to live like this! I can't even keep it a secret
From my critics, I am so feverish and lovesick!
You have given me good advice, but I can't hear it
A lover's ears are deaf to the outcries of love-critics.
How can I listen? I don't even trust the counsel of grey hairs,
And everyone knows old age is guileless when it comes to good counsel!