Shabistari : The Effect of the Draught

For more about the Persian Sufi Mahmud Shabistari and his important work, The Garden of Mystery, please see this post.

Intoxicated from the pure draught
which I had drained to the dregs,
in the bare dust I fell.
Since then I don’t know if I exist or not;
but I am not sober, nor am I ill or drunken.
Sometimes, like His eye, I am full of joy,
or, like His curl, I am waving;
Sometimes — alas! — from habit or nature,
I am lying on a dust heap.
Sometimes, at a glance from Him,
I am back in the Rose Garden.

Translation by Florence Lederer

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