Ghazel - Nesimi

Yea, every dulcet speech o’ thine is e’en a pearl of lustrous ray;
Both sun and moon are moths that round thy Face’s taper flit and play.

Thy Face is yonder shining orb from whose effulgent radiance ’tis
The flambeaux of the sun and moon do flare with blazing light alway.

O censor, cast thy rosary and prayer-rug afar from thee,
And gaze on yonder curl and mole, and see what snare and grain are they.

The Lovers’ Loved One is The Truth, so to The Truth give thou thy life;
For why? — That frame which loveless is shall likewise ever lifeless stay.

Come, hearken to the tale of love, nor cheated be by fables still;
For every preacher’s words who sells the Koran are but fables aye.

Through all eternity no ache or ill from wine of Unity
Will reach that toper of The Truth whose skinker is yon narcisse gay.

The measure of the Wine of Unity is e’en the dearling’s lip;
O zealot, make thee drunk from yonder measure, sweet the measure, yea!

Bow down before yon Imago of the Merciful, for ne’er repelled
Is man of God who doth yon Image of the Lord adore in fay.

The sage is he who sees his Lord; come, see thy Lord, and sage become;
The alien ’tis, who ’fore The Truth is shamed, that’s Satan-like to-day.

Nesimi in thy musky tresses’ chain is bound, O Idol fair;
The madman he who all unfettered by those chains pursues his way.

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Nesimi  [Alī Imādud-Dīn Nasīmī] (1369 – 1417) Azerbaijan
Translated by E.J.W. Gibb
Source: A History Of Ottoman Poetry, Vol. 1, E.J.W. Gibb, Luzac & Co., 1900