دار بيبليون
Poetry evening 2 on Bistami/poems by Lwiis Saliba, Read on Zoom, Wednesday 6/4/2022
Do we dive into the Ocean
of Abu Yazid?
Today we dive into a stormy sea.
Its beginning is the ultimate… its end indefinite!
Do we have enough dream…enough will?
For the Ocean of Abu Yazid…to cross?!
The waves are rising… the marina is quivering!
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Didn’t he once say: the sea I have crossed.
On its shores, the prophets stopped
While the water is at best ankle deep?!
To enter the world of Abu Yazid: it shines!
It’s travelling far away with him, that’s for sure
Because Bistami, his mother, called him Tayfur
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It is the familiar name of a bird in Arabic.
It is the common name of a Falcon in Persian.
Who by this name engraved in every syllable
Cleared the way for his only child
And kindled in him a most ardent fire.
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Tayfur is a bird, his body the only one
And in omnipotence he is thus absent
Wandered the seas, oceans of the Kingdom.
His goal then… will be to achieve
Like a bird transcends all duality.
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Our burdens, finally today we let go…
In the immense beauty today we soar…
Limits and logic make reason fall…
The heart and chest today: let’s free…
The senses inside today: let us ignite
And from its heavy sleep let us awaken intuition.
If our own mind, always weary
Never Abu Yazid then… will we understand.
And logic, in us, we will use
To go land, without flight, but passion!
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Only the heart is the key
In Abu’s world.
True ‘winged’ feeling?
In Abu’s Ascension.
Ascension to Fly?
Intuition can go,
Alone… where Abu Yazid, arrived!
Byblos August, 1998.
Here is finally a poem that describes my pilgrimage and especially this crucial moment of this pilgrimage to the shrine of Abu Yazid al-Bistami:
Abu Yazid… O my beloved Master
At last, in your shrine, I met you.
Our meeting was a journey through time
Between now and this moment.
A reminiscence with closed eyes,
Took me back to the old days
Or perhaps even to our past days.
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Abu Yazid these walls and their evocations
Still keep your vibrations
This mihrab still speaks, to each visitor
Of your ancient presence
Between subtle and dense.
Your eternal presence, so dear to my heart!
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Abu Yazid:
These minutes of meditation
In your cell, deep inside,
Were for me a blessed moment
Between eternity… and even infinity
And for the space, even of a moment
Made me fly out of time
In an ascent to you
A beginning of a journey that brought me back to the SELF
As if I were then your faithful servant
Who was amazed to experience this fervour.
How could he keep it a secret?
It was at your command that he went
Into the desert to tell the camels the key
Of what he learned from your own secrets.
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Abu Yazid, I have come to ask you
To accompany me?
This is an enterprise I would like to keep
For the rest of my days, looking for you
As if I were searching for myself!
In your sanctuary when I met you
A little of myself I found again!
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Abu Yazid:
A pilgrimage to you was my itinerary
The first day I went to the shrine
The second day, I saw the Patron of the shrine
But I did not contemplate the shrine…
So, will there come a day for good
When I will see neither the shrine nor its Patron?
Bistam/Iran on 25 May 2009.