One Face, Infinite Reflections
 
The hearts, the mirror for the beauty of Your Face
The workings of a mirror the visualization for Your Face
 
Gesture not Your Face that desires might befall upon the hearts
Like the stainless steel blade striking upon the hearts, Wow! [1]
 
Remembering You is the reply for death and destruction [2]
How can a beggar ever dream about the wealth of all treasures?
 
Because Your Face filled my home with so many thoughts [3]
In front of my face many mirrors hanging upon every wall
 
Procrastinating to show even a glimpse of Your Face so far
No wonder! Since Your beauty turned down everyone before I
 
The heart that boasts about patience for a moment now
Watch out! The enmity and hate Your love brings about
 
The heart burns no longer now that old flames are out [4]
When suddenly the smoldered past begets young fires
 
O! Sufi, turn away and rinse the cloak with the wine of love [5]
Which becomes the woolen cloak over the onlookers’ silken gown
 
This night, O! Cupbearer, has almost passed serve the purest wine [6]
Bring forth the pain for Khosrow, from the resplendent Majestic Might
 
End.
 
 
Man is fabricating mirrors as small as atomic scales, in millions placed side-by-side precise and complex designs. Each mirror reflects a tiny amount of light, imperceptible by human eye but millions of these reflections coalesce into one complex integrated semiconductor device, a machine capable of advanced almost infinite-like operations suitable for variety of applications.
 
Just like these prefabricated atomic scale mirrors, resides in depth of your heart complex mirror-like visualization reflecting the peculiar light of the Creator onto thoughts, imaginations, beliefs, knowledge, wisdom, love, hate and beauty… Just like semiconductor-fabricated micromirrors, human eye cannot see these mirrors within us. But their reflections a major part of our lives and our behavior.
 
Whether you say, “I do not believe in God” or “I do believe in God” in both cases the Light from the Face of the Beloved emanates upon the mirrors of hearts, the same light reflects the same manner but the words chosen by the owner of the heart to describe the event differ. Had this light reflected not, the above two sentences never uttered even once in the universe! Their utterance proof for the light that has been reflected by a mirror deep within your darkness…
 
 
 
[1] No matter when and where and what the conditions, we are facing the Face of the Beloved (Koran[2:115]). Its gestures are the abetment and encouragement for hearts to say or do certain things. And in doing so we fall into many trials and tribulations. So the reflection of Its gesturing face is like a sword hitting our hearts.
 
[2] When something awful happens a car crash or some very bad news or sudden pain, even the atheist startled yells aloud “Oh my God!”. The poet says there is something within us that upon such emergencies like a mirror reflects the beam of Almighty’s console as if the Lord saying, “I am here call upon me”. But this happens automatically beyond our control, for everyone, the wordless light of the Beloved reflecting off the mirror within the hearts. Even though we are like the beggars in this world, no chance of dreaming about the wealth, still in our heart there is this constant dream, reflection of the most precious treasure of the Universe yes! The Beloved.
 
[3] Home is this world filled with the Face of the Beloved Creator. No matter where we look, there is a mirror and reflecting the light off Its beautiful face.
 
[4] Just when you think your heartache is over about one thing, you are hit with the smoldering flames of another! This is how the human heart continues to be alive. And no matter what burns you, it is the fire from the past burnt the people before you.
 
[5] ‘Turn away’ means to renounce this world. I love the imagery to wash with the wine! ‘Onlookers’ are the people around who are obsessed about the material wealth and that is symbolized by the silken gown. I guess the poet means to wash the silk away with the wine of love, and wear the woolen gown instead to become Sufi which means someone wearing wool in Arabic.
 
During the early rise of Islam the material wealth was spread about the empire in vast amounts. To the point that men started to wear silk which has been forbidden by the Prophet for men as a symbol of modesty. Sufis, originally wealthy scholars, some gave away their wealth and start wearing the woolen cloak to protest against the silk wearers to protest against the materialism at large amongst the Muslims. In this verse the poet used the term Sufia which in Farsi means ‘O! Sufi’ it has nothing to do with the term Sophia which some believe is Greek for wisdom.
 
[6] The Farsi word ‘Doosh’ is used once in each verse. First it means last night but the real meaning I believe is the past life or life as it is being wasted. ‘Doosh’ in the second verse means the attribute of greatness and majesty for the Beloved. The word ‘pain’ in the second verse means the state of loving by the Beloved in which the lover can no longer withstand much lack of attention to this world or heartache and feeling of loss. Like the painful helplessness a lover must endure, no matter how much pain felt, the lover thirsts for this peculiar ache.
 
 
Background: SEM view of a 5 x 5 µm² mirror. Please click on the picture for the research.


© 2003-2002,  Dara Shayda