Omar and the Old Poet

When his time passed and he became old, his soul became weak and fragile.  
His back bent like a bow, and his eyebrows drooped over his eyes like a curtain.  
His once sweet and life-giving voice became harsh, and no one valued it anymore.  
The melody that once envied Venus became like the bray of an old donkey.  
Who is there that remains pleasant and doesn't become unpleasant, or which roof doesn't wear out?  
Except for the voices of the beloved ones in the hearts, which are like the breath of the trumpet.  
The inner world, where all are intoxicated by it, is not the non-existence from which our existence comes.  
The magnet of thought and every sound of his is the delight of inspiration, revelation, and his secret.  
When the minstrel became older and weaker, he became dependent on a loaf of bread due to lack of income.  
He said, "You gave me a long life and many opportunities, O God, you showed kindness to a wretch."  
"I have sinned for seventy years, yet you did not take away my daily bread."  
"I have no income today, I am your guest, I play the harp for you, I am yours."  
He took up the harp and sought God, sighing towards the cemetery of Yathrib.  
He said, "I want from God a silk reward, that he may accept hearts with goodness."  
After playing much and laying his head down in tears, he made the harp his pillow and fell upon a grave.  
Sleep took him, and his soul was freed from captivity, leaving the harp and the minstrel behind.  
He became free from the body and the troubles of the world, in the simple world and the desert of the soul.  
His soul was there, narrating tales, which if they remained here, would have delighted my soul in this garden and spring.  
Intoxicated by this desert and the hidden tulip field, I would travel without wings and feet.  
Without lips and teeth, I would taste sugar, free from the troubles of the mind, I would converse with the inhabitants of the thin sky.  
With closed eyes, I would see a world, picking flowers and basil without hands.  
A water bird immersed in a sea of honey, the very essence of Job's wine and bath.  
With which Job was cleansed from head to toe, from all troubles, like the light of the east.  
If the Masnavi were as vast as the sky, it would not contain even half of this.  
For the earth and sky are so vast, yet they made my heart narrow and fragmented.  
And this world that appeared in my dream, opened my wings and feathers with its vastness.  
His soul was there, singing in the space of his mercy and kindness.  
In a dream, a voice told Umar, may God be pleased with him, to give that man sleeping in the cemetery so much gold from the public treasury.  
At that moment, God sent a dream to Umar, so he could not keep himself from sleep.  
He was amazed, for this was not usual, this came from the unseen and was not without purpose.  
He laid his head down and fell asleep, and in his dream, he heard a call from God.  
That call, which is the origin of every sound and melody, is the true call, and the rest are just echoes.  
Turks, Kurds, Persians, and Arabs understood that call without ears and lips.  
What place is there for Turks, Tajiks, and Zangis, when even wood and stone understand that call?  
Every moment, it comes from him, "Am I not?" The essence and accidents become existent.  
If they do not say "Yes," yet their coming from non-existence is indeed a "Yes."  
From what I said about the understanding of stone and wood, pay good attention to its story.  
The lament of the Hanana pillar when they built a pulpit for the Prophet, peace be upon him, because the congregation grew large, and they said, "We cannot see your blessed face during the sermon," and the Prophet and the companions heard that lament, and the question and answer of Mustafa, peace be upon him, with the pillar, is explicit.  
The Hanana pillar lamented like the masters of reason from the separation of the Messenger.  
The Prophet said, "What do you want, O pillar?" It said, "My soul has become blood from your separation."  
"I was your seat, and you left me, and they made a pulpit for you."  
He said, "Do you want to become a palm tree, from which the east and west will pick fruit?"  
"Or in that world, God will make you a cypress, so you remain fresh and green forever."  
It said, "I want its permanence," listen, O heedless one, do not be less than wood.  
They buried that pillar in the ground, so it would be resurrected like people on the Day of Judgment.  
So you know that whoever God calls, remains idle from all worldly affairs.  
Whoever has business with God, finds his burden there and is freed from work.  
Whoever is not given secrets, how can he believe the lament of inanimate objects?  
He says "Yes," not from the heart, for agreement, so they do not say he is a hypocrite.  
If the knowledgeable ones were not aware of the matter, this word would have been rejected in the world.  
Hundreds of thousands of imitators and marked ones, a half-doubt throws them into suspicion.  
For their imitation and reasoning are based on conjecture, and all their wings and feathers are based on it.  
That vile devil raises a doubt, and all these blind ones fall headlong.  
The foot of the reasoners is wooden, a wooden foot is very unstable.  
Except for the pole of the time, the seer, whose stability makes the mountain bewildered.  
The blind man's foot is a staff, so he does not fall headlong on the stones.  
That rider who achieved victory for the army, who is the Sultan of vision for the people of faith?  
If the blind have seen the way with a staff, they are under the protection of the clear-sighted.  
If there were no seers and kings, all the blind would have died in the world.  
Neither from the blind comes cultivation nor harvest, nor construction, nor trade, nor profit.  
If your mercy and grace had not been, the wooden staff of reasoning would have broken.  
What is this staff but analogies and reasoning, that staff which the Glorious made them see?  
When the staff became a tool of war and noise, break that staff, O blind one.  
He gave you the staff so you could advance, yet you struck him with that staff in anger.  
What use is the circle of the blind, bring the watchman in the middle.  
Hold the hem of the one who gave you the staff, see what man saw from disobedience.  
Look at the miracle of Moses and Ahmad, how the staff became a snake and the pillar became aware.  
From the staff came a snake, and from the pillar, a lament, five times they strike for the sake of religion.  
If this taste were not unreasonable, why would there be a need for so many miracles?  
Whatever is reasonable, the mind consumes it without the need for miracles, without dispute.  
See this virgin unreasonable path, accepted in the heart of every sincere one.  
Just as from fear of Adam, demons and beasts fled to the islands out of envy.  
Also, from fear of the miracles of the prophets, the deniers hid under the grass.  
So they live under the guise of Islam, in succession, so you do not know who they are.  
Like counterfeiters, they rub silver on that false coin and call it the king.  
The appearance of their words is monotheism and law, but inside it is like the seed of madness in bread.  
Though they accuse with their tongues, their hands and feet testify against them.  
The miracle of the Prophet, peace be upon him, in the speaking of pebbles in the hand of Abu Jahl and the testimony of the pebbles to the truth of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.  
The stones were in the hand of Abu Jahl, he said, "O Ahmad, tell me quickly what this is."  
"If you are a messenger, what is hidden in my hand, since you know the secrets of the heavens?"  
He said, "Do you want me to tell you what they are, or do you want them to say that we are true and right?"  
Abu Jahl said, "The second is rarer," he said, "Yes, the truth is more capable of that."  
From his hand, each piece of stone began to testify without delay.  
They said, "There is no god but Allah," and they adorned the jewel of Ahmad, the Messenger of Allah.  
When Abu Jahl heard this from the stones, he angrily threw those stones to the ground.  
The rest of the story of the minstrel and Umar delivering the message that the voice gave.  
Return and listen to the state of the minstrel, for the minstrel became helpless from waiting.  
A voice came to Umar, "O Umar, redeem our servant from need."  
"We have a special and honorable servant, take a step towards the cemetery."  
"O Umar, rise from the public treasury, place seven hundred dinars in your hand completely."  
"Go to him and say, 'You are our chosen one, take this amount and excuse us now.'"  
"Spend this amount for the price of silk, and when it is spent, come back here."  
Then Umar, from the awe of the voice, jumped up and girded himself for this service.  
Umar set out towards the cemetery, with a purse in his arms, running in search.  
He ran around the cemetery a lot, but he saw no one there except the old man.  
He said, "This is not him," and ran again, he was left bewildered and saw no one but the old man.  
He said, "God told us there is a servant, pure and worthy, and blessed."  
"Who is this old minstrel, special to God? Bravo, O hidden head, bravo."  
Once more, he circled the cemetery, like a hunting lion around the plain.  
When he was sure there was no one but the old man, he said, "In the darkness, there is much light."  
He came with a hundred manners and sat there, Umar sneezed, and the old man awoke.  
He saw Umar and was amazed, he intended to leave and began to tremble.  
He said inwardly, "O God, from you justice, the inspector fell upon a little minstrel."  
When he looked at the old man's face, he saw him ashamed and pale.  
Then Umar said to him, "Do not fear me, do not die, I have brought you good news from God."  
"How much God praised your character, that he made Umar fall in love with your face."  
"Sit before me and do not be estranged, so I may tell you the secret of your fortune."  
"God sends you greetings and asks about your endless sorrows and pains."  
"Here are some coins for the price of silk, spend them and come back here."  
The old man trembled when he heard this, he bit his hand and beat himself.  
He cried out, "O incomparable God, the poor old man melted from shame."  
When he cried a lot and the pain went beyond limits, he threw the harp to the ground and broke it.  
He said, "O you who have been my veil from God, O you who have led me astray from the royal path."  
"O you who have drunk my blood for seventy years, O you who have blackened my face before perfection."  
"O God, with your faithful gift, have mercy on the life wasted in injustice."  
"God gave a life that no one knows its value in the world."  
"I spent my life moment by moment, I blew it all in the low and high notes."  
"Alas, from the memory of the path and the curtain of Iraq, the bitter breath of separation left my memory."  
"Woe that the wetness of the low notes threw me down, the crop of my heart dried up, my heart died."  
"Woe that from the sound of these twenty-four, the caravan passed, and the day became late."  
"O God, help from this cry for help, I seek justice not from anyone but this seeker of justice."  
"I find my justice from no one but the one who is closer to me than myself."  
"For this self of mine comes from him breath by breath, then I see him when this self becomes less for me."  
"Like the one who has gold with you, you turn to him, not to yourself."  
Turning Umar's attention from the state of crying, which is existence, to the state of absorption, which is non-existence.  
Then Umar said to him, "This lamentation of yours is also a sign of your awareness."  
"The path of annihilation is another path, for awareness is another sin."  
"When you circumambulate yourself, you return to yourself, when you come home, you are still with yourself."  
"O you whose news comes from the news-giver without news, your repentance from sin is worse."  
"O you who seek repentance from past states, when will you repent from this repentance, tell me."  
"Sometimes you make the low notes your qibla, sometimes you make the weeping your qibla."  
"When the discerning one became the mirror of secrets, the old man's soul awakened from within."  
"Like a soul without crying and laughter, his soul left, and another soul became alive."  
"A wonder came within him at that moment, that he went beyond the earth and sky."  
"A search beyond search, I do not know, you know, tell me."  
"A state and a saying beyond state and saying, drowned in the beauty of the Majestic."  
"A drowning not that there is salvation for it, or anyone but the sea knows it."  
"The part intellect is not from the whole, if there were not demand upon demand."  
"When demand upon demand reaches, the wave of that sea reaches here."  
"When the story of the old man's state reached here, the old man and his state drew the curtain."  
"The old man shook off the hem of conversation, half of what was said remained in our mouths."  
"For this feast and joy, a hundred thousand souls should be sacrificed."  
"In the hunt of the forest of the soul, be a falcon, like the sun of the world, be a soul-giver."  
"The high sun became a soul-giver, every moment they become arrows, they fill them."