Ricordiamo l'amato, beviamo vino
ebbri prima che fosse creato.
È un sole; luna piena la sua coppa;
una crescente lo porge in giro; quante stelle
risplendono in esso da quando mesci!
Non fosse stato per la fragranza non avrei trovato
la sua osteria; non fosse per lo splendore
l'immaginare non avrebbe dato immagine.
Il tempo ha mollato la fatua presa; è nascosto.
Segreti chiusi nella mente
ma se ricordati dal popolo
tutti si inebriano senza peccato.
Evaporò dalle stoviglie
non ne resta, se non un nome;
ma se quel nome entra nella mente di un uomo
la felicità lo abiterà la sofferenza lo abbandona.
Se chi sogna il cielo getta un occhio sul sigillo
il sigillo senza vino lo inebria.
Se spruzzi su un sepolcro qualche goccia
al morto torna lo spirito, il corpo rivive.
Se nell'ombra dei muri dove fluì
vino giacesse uno malato a morte
passa la malattia; e uno paralitico
condotto all'osteria cammina; il muto parla
se riconosce il salvatore. La fragranza
sparsa a oriente fino a occidente
si libera, per chi inala, il senso dell'odorato;
e chi si tinse il palmo della mano alla coppa
mai, la stella in mano, potrà perdersi a notte.
Togli il velo come a sposa in segreto
davanti a un cieco dalla nascita: la vista torna.
Cantane le lodi e il sordo torna a udire.
Se partono viaggiatori per la terra nativa
e uno è morso dal serpente, non lo danna
il veleno. Se il mago traccia
le lettere del nome sul ciglio del pazzo
la scritta cura lunatici;
blasone sullo stendardo di ospite,
il nome rende ebbri tutti sotto di esso.
Nella virtù corregge i sognatori del cielo
perfeziona. Così l'indeciso
è guidato a sentiero di risoluzione.
Benevolo chi non conobbe la bontà;
e chi mai sopportò ora sopporta
nonostante l'ira. L'asino del popolo
potesse solo baciare il filtro, col bacio
guadagnerebbe ogni qualità.
Mi dicono descrivilo che lo conosci
bene. Certo, le sue doti conosco:
non acqua non aria non fuoco non terra,
ma puro per mezzo di acqua, per mezzo di aria
sottile, riluce per fuoco e vapora via terra -
eccellenze le guide a estrarne il bene
chi ne parla, eccelle
la prosa che lo pregia, eccelle il verso.
Chi non lo conosceva può gioire
di sentirlo menzionare, come l'amante di Nu'm
quando la ode nominare.
Prima di tutte le cose, nell'eternità
esiste prima che ve ne fosse forma o traccia.
Tramite lui furono le cose, poi da esse fu velato
saggiamente a chi non comprende.
Lo ama il mio spirito, vi si unì,
non come corpi immersi uni negli altri.
Vino senza vigna: Adamo è mio padre.
Vigna senza vino, materna fonte di lui e di me.
Vasi più puri per la purezza
della verità che contengono, e verità
elevate per la purezza del vaso.
Le cose furono distinte, eppure tutto è Uno:
i nostri spiriti vino, i nostri corpi vino.
Prima di esso non c'è un prima. Dopo
nessun dopo; assoluto privilegio
di essere prima di ogni dopo.
Prima della misura del tempo
pressasse, e l'età dei nostri primi padri
seguisse - orfano senza genitori!
Mi dicono: hai bevuto ingiustizia.
Non io, bevvi solo quel che non bere
per me sarebbe davvero ingiusto.
Bene per il popolo dei monaci spesso
ne fossero ebbri, sebbene non bevessero,
sebbene appena ne bevessero. Ma estasi
fu mia prima che io esistessi, sarà mia
dopo il disfarsi delle mie ossa. Bevilo puro!
Ma se proprio devi allungarlo peccato
disdegnare saliva dalle labbra dell'Amato.
Vai cerca all'osteria; prega si sveli
a melodie di musica. Esse ne mostrano la dignità
perché il vino e la preoccupazione non dimorano
insieme,
né la sofferenza con la musica.
Sii ebbro un'ora e vedrai
l'intera età del tempo tua schiava ai tuoi ordini.
Non visse chi visse sobrio
e chi restò non inebriato mancò il centro.
Lascia che con lacrime pianga sestesso, la sua
vita
passò senza che ne avesse parte.
Rememb’ring the belovèd, wine we drink
Which drunk had made us ere the vine’s creation.
A sun it is; the full moon is its cup;
A crescent hands it round; how many stars
Shine forth from it the moment it be mixed!
But for its fragrance ne’er had I been guided
Unto its tavern; but for its resplendence
Imagining could no image make of it.
Time its mere grasp hath left; hidden it is.
Like secrets pent in the intelligence,
Yet if it be remembered1 in the tribe,
All become drunk—no shame on them nor sin.
Up hath it fumed from out the vessel’s dregs.
Nothing is left of it, only a name;
Yet if that name but enter a man’s mind,
Gladness shall dwell with him and grief depart.
Had the boon revelers gazed upon its seal,2
That seal, without the wine, had made them drunk.
Sprinkle a dead man’s grave with drops of it,
His spirit would return, his body quicken.
If in the shadow of the wall where spreads
Its vine they laid a man, mortally sick,
Gone were his sickness; and one paralyzed,
Brought near its tavern, would walk; the dumb would
speak,
Did he its savor recollect. Its fragrance,
If wafted through the East, even in the West,
Would free, for one berheumed, his sense of smell;
And he who stained his palm, clasping its cup,
1.
The reference is to the dhikr, the remembrance or
invocation of the Name of God, the basic rite of Islamic mysticism. It is to
this Name that every mention of the wine’s name refers throughout the poem. The
tribe is the brotherhood.
2.
The Prophet is not only the cup, but also, as Seal of
the Prophets, the seal upon the wine-jar.
*
Could never, star in hand, be lost by night.
Unveil it3 like a bride in secrecy
Before one blind from birth: his sight would dawn.
Decant it, and the deaf would hearing have.
If riders4 rode out for its native earth,
And one of them were bit by snake, unharmed
By poison he. If the enchanter5 traced
The letters of its name on madman's brow,
That script would cure him of his lunacy;
And blazoned on the standard of a host,6
Its name would make all men beneath it drunk.
In virtue the boon revelers it amends,
Makes perfect. Thus by it the irresolute
Is guided to the path of firm resolve.
Bountiful he, whose hand no bounty knew;
And he that never yet forbore forbeareth,
Despite the goad of anger. The tribe’s dunce,
Could he but kiss its filter, by that kiss
Would win the sense of all its attributes.
“Describe it, well thou knowest how it is,”
They bid me. Yea, its qualities I know:
Not water and not air nor fire nor earth,
3.
Literally “unveil her”, for khamr (wine) is feminine.
As Arberry remarks in the notes to his translation, the comparison of the
unveiling of a becobwebbed wine-jar with the unveiling of a bride is frequent
“in bacchic poetry”.
4.
The riders are the advanced initiates, sālikūn
(travelers), who are immune from the effects of poison which, according to
Nābulusī, is the passionate attachment to worldly things.
5.
Again according to Nābulusī, the enchanter is the
Spiritual Master and the madman is one who takes appearances for reality.
6.
Another reference to the brotherhood, this time as an
army whose warriors are engaged in the Greater Holy War (al-jihād al-akbar),
‘the war against the soul’.
*
But purity for water, and for air
Subtlety, light for fire, spirit for earth—
Excellencies that guide to extol its good
All who would tell of it, and excellent
Their prose in praise of it, excellent their verse.
So he that knew not of it7 can rejoice
To hear it mentioned, as Nu‘m’s lover doth
To hear her name, whenever Nu‘m is named.
Before all beings, in Eternity
It is, ere yet was any shape or trace.
Through it things were, then it by them was veiled,
Wisely, from him who understandeth not.
My spirit loved it, was made one with it,
But not as bodies each in other merge.
Wine without vine: Adam my father is.
Vine without wine, vine mothereth it and me.8
Vessels are purer for the purity
Of truths which are their content, and those truths
Are heightened9 by the vessels being pure.
Things have been diff’renced, and yet all is One:
Our spirits wine are, and our bodies vine.10
7.
Every human being is in love with the wine even if he
be not conscious of it. The descriptions of it serve to awaken that latent
love. Nu‘m, like Laylā, is one of those women’s names by which Sufis denote the
Divine Essence. Love of Nu‘m and love of the wine may therefore be said to
coincide.
8.
At the level of my oneness with the principial wine in
Eternity—wine which, being absolutely independent, is therefore in no need of
grape or vine for its existence—I am a true son of Adam who, as Logos,
prefigures my union by his. The vine is Nafas ar-Rahmān (the Breath of the
All-Merciful) which is also termed at-Tabī‘ah (Universal Nature), the feminine
or maternal source of all manifestation.
9.
Reading tasmu as in the oldest manuscript. It is for
the mystic to ensure, by the ritual means at his disposal, that his soul is
filled with spiritual presences or truths. These presences have a purifying
effect upon the soul which is their vessel, and this increase of purity
qualifies the vessel to endure a heightening of the truths. If we read tanmu
“have increase”, as in the other manuscripts, the meaning is not basically
changed.
*
Before it no before is, after it
No after is; absolute its privilege
To be before all afters. Ere time’s span
It pressing was, and our first father’s11 age
Came afterwards—parentless orphan it!
They tell me: ‘Thou hast drunk iniquity’.
Not so, I have but drunk what not to drink
Would be for me iniquitous indeed.
Good for the monastery folk, that oft
They drunken were with it, yet drank it not,
Though fain would drink. But ecstasy from it
Was mine ere I existed, shall be mine
Beyond my bones’ decaying. Drink it pure!
But if thou needs must have it mixed, ‘twere sin
To shun mouth-water12 from the Loved One’s lips.
10.
But, as Nābulusī remarks, the vine contains the
spiritual juice which will ultimately be transmuted into wine. We may compare
the lines of Ibn al-Fārid’s younger contemporary, ‘Alī ash-Shushtarī:
Behold My beauty, witness of Me
In every man,
Like the water flowing through
The sap of branches.
One water drink they, yet they flower
In many hues.
11.
It is not the spiritual or ‘winal’ nature of Adam
which is referred to here but his human or ‘vineal’ nature, of which the
Prophet said:
“I was a Prophet when Adam was yet between water and
clay.”
12.
If you have not the spiritual strength for oneness
with the Divine Essence Itself, then let the water that you mix the wine with
be nothing less than “the saliva of God”, that is, the Supreme Spirit, which,
if it be not fully Him, is not other than Him. The mixing of the wine thus
signifies the emergence of the Logos, ar-Rūh al-Muhammadī, and this explains
the mention of stars in line four. The manifestation of the Spirit of Muhammad
precipitates the existence of the Spirits of his Companions, whom he likened to
stars: “My Companions are even as the stars. Whichsoever of them ye follow, ye
shall be rightly guided”. By extension the words “how many stars” may be taken
to include those Saints who are the heirs of the Companions in subsequent
generations.
*
Go seek it in the tavern; bid it unveil
To strains of music. They offset its worth,
For wine and care dwelt never in one place,
Even as woe with music cannot dwell.
Be drunk one hour with it, and thou shalt see
Time’s whole age as thy slave, at thy command.
He hath not lived here, who hath sober lived,
And he that dieth not drunk hath missed the mark.
With tears then let him mourn himself, whose life
Hath passed, and he no share of it hath had.
Translation Martin Lings
