Concerning the Degrees in the Ken of Unity - Sheykhi

Come, heart, if thou the loftiest aim desire,
Know, soul, if thou the Utmost Goal enquire,
That Ken of Unity the loftiest is,
The utmost limit of all saintship this.
Each sect hath told, far as its wit hath seen,
As far as hath its sight had power to win.
Of this full many a hint half-understood.
By some as Taste, by some as Knowledge, viewed.
Yet to the Truth of Ken of Unity
The Path leads not the traveller-company;
For that an Ocean is that hath no bound.
And none may that encompass or surround.
What they whose lore and reason perfect be
Have reached is but the shore of yonder Sea!
Of Irem-garth¹ how should the leaflet know
Or how the mote the sun’s vast body show?
On high His Glory over all their speech!
Aloft His Essence over all they teach!

The wonder this, the more it is revealed
The more the nature of The Truth’s concealed.
Its radiance is a veil, and so its light.
The more it waxeth, hides it more from sight.
But they of the Unveilment² thence have brought
From time to time a hint to such as sought,
A hint the soul-perceived taste whereof
To ecstasy upraiseth them of Love.
As theirs who relativity deny . —
‘To drop relation’s Ken of Unity.’
Or his who far upon this Path hath gone:—
‘Phenomenal maketh Eternal known.’
Saith who divides ’tween true and vain withal: —
‘Outside is God of aught phenomenal.
‘What’s proved as upshot of the whole is this: —
‘Outside phenomena their Maker is.’
His Beauty’s one, though, manifold their speech;
To yonder Beauty ’tis that pointeth each.

Division in the Ken of Unity
Is not, yet thus they of philosophy: —
In Ken of Unity are three degrees;
And Knowledge, Eye, and Truth, the names of these.
On reason founded doth the Knowledge lie;
And ’tis through intuition comes the Eye.
The Truth is proper to the One for e’er;
Nor reason wins, nor intuition, there.

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Sheykhi or Sheykih (full name Sinan Şeyhi)  (died 1428) Turkey
Translated by E.J.W. Gibb
Source: A History Of Ottoman Poetry by E.J.W. Gibb, Luzac & Co., 1900

Notes

1. Irem-garth is a mythical paradise city in the desert of Aden, supposedly founded by Sheddad, an ancient Arab King of the tribe of Ad.
2. They of the Unveilment (Keshf) - the prophets and saints from before, whose souls the veil woven by the senses is from time to time withdrawn.