Whirlpool of
Love
Ah! Your
beauty’s elegant reflections dissolved in the waves and swirls [1]
Wondering
upon the mirror, like whirlpool devouring the eddies
Secrets of
heart uncovered, unless wounded by the gashed lesions of love [2]
These
words forbidden for any disbelieving deceptive Bedouin lost [3]
If with
humility one respects the owner of all submissions
Many
Mihrabs uncovered with one single prostration [4]
Yearning
to find the happiness, casting folded net of ignorance, is ignorance [5]
Ocean
waves unlike the fish, cannot be caught in the bent of a hook desperate
Shattered
heart of the enlightened souls, glitter of a sharpened sword [6]
Copious
waves come to life once the waters have broken apart
The seed
of heart never crushed under the windmill of this life [7]
Like
diamonds never chafed by the torrents of a whirlpool’s gall
The dust
of negligence boiled away the moment opening the eyes
Awaken
from deep sleep to the velvet of our dreams shocked
Our dreams
swept away, amidst inhaling and exhaling of the self, afar
A
(songbird’s) song lost, in the dusty horror of a trap, afoul
The wounds
of my heart tell tales of Your slaying brutal sword [8]
Just like
the few chapters of a novel, much meaning they divulge
Sometimes
my sobs pull close, sometimes my tears push forward
My
treasure, fist full of dust and all these gushing floods
In
frustration, many twists and turns, all hope has fled
And I am
wreathed like a braid all entwined
Caravan of
Baydel’s life knows well of his self’s whereabouts
Like
tumultuous tumble of waves, rapid overflowing floods
[1] The wonderful reflections of the beauty of the
Creator is lost, only in our foolish minds, in the twirls and eddies of
the life’s ups and downs. This entire world and all its creations and
events are a magnificiently-polished mirror whereupon reflects
perpetually “The Light of the Heavens and Earth” the light of my Allah
without whom no beauty ever possible. Or another meaning could be, all
the troubles of this life are drowned like swirls and waves into the
vast ocean of Allah’s beauty. Or yet another meaning could be that
Allah’s beauty is reflected upon/into the waves and eddies of the
waters of this world. That means by looking at these waves we see the
reflection of beauty of Allah.
When we look upon this mirror
we are so taken with the beauty of Allah that we are like an eddy
devoured by the sublime whirlpool of the beauty of the Creator.
[2] Secrets of heart and loving just like the hidden
treasures underneath the earth can only be uncovered by means of
breaking up the surface and reaching deep to retrieve. When Allah
commands for your heart to broken, that is the moment, that is the
edict for unearthing the treasures of your heart. For you to see and
cherish for others benefit from what is deep inside your heart. Allah
breaks not your heart out of any malice or cruelty. These wounds are
means by which your treasures surfaced for all to value.
[3] In the original text the word for Bedouin was the
Arabic Koranic word ‘Araab’ which many people mistakenly believe to be
the plural of the word Arab. This word in Arabic and Koranic means the
Bedouin desert dweller but it carries the connotation of disbelief and
hypocrisy, Koran At-Tauba [9:97]:
I cannot believe that this
distinguished man would use such racially offensive term to attack the
race of Arabs. I believe the word used for uncultured ignorant Bedouin
like folk.
[4] I learned from Baba Tahir Oryaan that most of us
the slaves and worshipers of Allah are rude with such crude mannerism!?
Apparently those days in the past, worshippers were concerned about
their politeness and refined behavior and mannerism in facing their
Lord. “Owner of all submissions” is Allah to whom belong all
prostrations and bows. Baydel says listen you do need millions of
prostrations to get the attention of your Lord; you need one polite
humble one. And if you are able to observe such mannerism then opens to
you thousands of places and times of worship (Mihrabs) serene with your
Creator. Else you can look for this Mihrab for eternity and you will
never find one.
[5] This verse is really convoluted and most probably I
did not get the meaning right. When a fisherman manually throws a net
into the sea, he needs to fold it several times to be able to cast
afar. So perhaps he meant looking for happiness in this life is like
folding a net several times, maybe you catch fish may be you wont!
[6] Again hard to decipher, Baydel says for the
enlightened souls broken hearts and hardships of life are just more
light for them like the light reflected from the blade of a sword and
this blade as scary as it is actually never cuts the person. Also he
adds, that like an ocean when the heart breaks tremendous power of
movement of waves (life pushed in a different direction) is caused for
better.
[7] No matter what happens to you and no matter how
your life and death shall come to pass your heart is like a diamond
unscratched! Nothing and never can chafe your wonderful heart.
[8] Brother read the wounds of your heart like a book.
That book though few chapters of a larger novel of life, shall give you
the bulk of what the story was all about. Read your heart brother …
Background: Mono Lake where there
are bacteria living in harshest of all conditions. This poem was
Baydel's way of asking us to be human beings in bad conditions.
© 2003-2002,
By Dara Shayda
