Up and sing! - Mawlana (Taj ud-Din) Ahmed

Up and sing! O 'anqa-natured¹ nightingale!
High in every business doth thy worth prevail:
Sing! for good the words are that from thee proceed;
Whatsoever thou dost say is prized indeed.
Then, since words to utter thee so well doth suit,
Pity were it surely if thy tongue were mute.
Blow a blast in utt'rance that the Trusted One²,
When he hears, ten thousand times may cry: "Well done!"
Up and sing! O bird most holy! up and sing!
Unto us a story fair and beauteous bring.
Let not opportunity slip by, silent there;
Unto us the beauty of each word declare.
Seldom opportunities like this with thee lie;
Sing then, for th' occasion now is thine, so hie!
Lose not opportunities that thy hand doth find,
For some day full suddenly Death thy tongue shall bind.
Of how many singers, eloquent of words,
Bound have Death and Doom the tongues fast in their cords!
Lose not, then, th' occasion, but to joy look now,
For one day thy station 'neath earth seek must thou.
Whilst the tongue yet floweth, now thy words collect;
Them as meaning's taper 'midst the feast erect,
That thy words, remaining long time after thee,
To the listeners hearing shall thy record be.
Thy mementoes lustrous biding here behind,
Through them they'll recall thee, O my soul, to mind.
Those who've left mementoes ne'er have died in truth;
Those who've left no traces ne'er have lived in sooth.
Surely with this object didst thou come to earth,
That to mind should ever be recalled thy worth.
"May I die not!" say'st thou, one of noble race?
Strive, then, that thou leavest here a name of grace.

---

Mawlana (Taj ud-Din) Ahmed (1334 - 1412) Turkey
Translated by E.J.W. Gibb
Source: Ottoman literature; the poets and poetry of Turkey by Elias John Wilkinson Gibb,  M.W. Dunne, 1901
Notes:

1. The 'Anqa is a fabulous bird which features in Oriental poetry and romance.
2. Trusted One is the Archangel Gabriel