A Children’s Game

From Chapter 1: THE TAVERN
Book I, Verses 3426-3454
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In expressing that one should conceal their state and intoxication from the ignorant

Listen to the words of the wise, a veil  
Place your head where you have drunk the wine  
When intoxicated from the tavern, one becomes lost  
A mockery and plaything for children  

He falls here and there on every path  
In the mud, and every fool laughs at him  
He is like this, and the children follow him  
Unaware of his intoxication and the taste of wine  

People are children, except for those intoxicated by God  
None are mature except those freed from desires  
He said the world is play and amusement, and you  
Are children, and God speaks the truth  

A child does not leave play  
Without the purification of the soul, how can one be intelligent?  
Consider this lust like a child's play  
That they drive here, O young one  

What is a child's play but a game  
Compared to the union of a hero and a warrior?  
The battles of people are like children's fights  
All meaningless, without substance, and lowly  

All their battles with wooden swords  
All their aims in futility  
All of them riding on a reed  
Saying this is our Buraq or Duldul  

They are carriers, and out of ignorance, they are raised  
Rider and carried, thinking they are on the path  
Wait for the day when the carriers of truth  
Pass the galloping horses through the nine heavens  

The spirit ascends to Him, and the angel  
From the spirit's ascent, the cosmos trembles  
Like children, all of you riding on hems  
Holding the corner of the hem like a horse  

From the truth, "Indeed, assumption avails not" has arrived  
How can the steed of assumption run through the heavens?  
Most assumptions in preferring this  
Do not dispute the sun in its clarity  

Then you will see your steeds  
You have made a steed from your own feet  
Your imagination, thought, sense, and perception  
Consider them like a child's reed horse  

The knowledge of the people of the heart is their carrier  
The knowledge of the people of the body is their burden  
When knowledge strikes the heart, it becomes an aid  
When knowledge strikes the body, it becomes a burden  

God said, "They carry their books"  
Knowledge that is not from Him is a burden  
Knowledge that is not from Him without mediation  
Does not last, like the color of a makeup artist  

But if you carry this burden well  
They will lift the burden and grant you joy  
So that you may ride the swift steed of knowledge  
After that, the burden will fall from your shoulders  

How can you be free from desires without the cup of Him?  
O content with the name of Him, with the name of Him  
What arises from attribute and name is imagination  
And that imagination is the guide to union

Barks Interpretation

Listen to the poet Sanai,