Farishte

The Traveler's Supplication

The name that even angels recite is Yours; Exalted is Your Presence, Your bounty flows for all.

The stars of love are held steadfast by Your pull; Your system, like the sun's, is the cosmic rule.

A sacred visit to Your tomb is life for the heart; Your station is beyond the Healer's touch or Khidr's timeless life.

If my heart is blackened, I am a scar on Your tulip-field, And if my brow is bright, I am the flower of Your spring.

Like the fragrance of a flower, I have left the garden's keep; A trial of my patience has been ordained for me.

From my homeland's house of beauty, I have been pulled along, By the thirst for the wine of knowledge, a current swift and strong.

My gaze is on the cloud of grace, a desert tree am I; God made no gardener needful unto me.

Like the sun, I sit enthroned within the heavens of this age; Through Your prayers, may that ladder be bestowed on me.

I have journeyed so far ahead of my companions on the road, The caravan mistakes me for their journey's final abode.

May the tongue of my pen never cause another's heart to break, And may I have no grievance 'neath this sky, not one to make.

A cry whose touch, like a comb, can part the tangles of the heart; From Your exalted presence, may such a lament be granted unto me.

The nest I built by gathering, piece by piece, the thorn and straw; In the garden, may that abode be shown to me once more.

Let me again lay my brow upon my mother's and father's feet, They who shared love's deepest secret with me.

That candle of the court of Murtaza's great House, Whose threshold is a holy sanctuary to me.

She by whose breath the bud of my desire was made to bloom; Whose kindness made a discerner of subtleties of me.

Pray this: that the Lord of heaven and earth may once again Grant the joy of her sacred visit unto me.

That second Joseph of my heart, that candle of love's flame, Whose brotherhood has brought solace unto my soul.

Whose love, by burning the ledger of 'I and Thou' away, Nurtured me in the breeze of joy, and made me grow each day.

In the garden of this world, may he bloom, a smiling flower, For that soul of my soul is dearer than life itself to me.

May the closed bud of the heart blossom and become a flower, And may this traveler's supplication be accepted in this hour!