Ode 11 - Amir Khusrow

1. The rose has blossomed in the garden, where is that blooming (lit. smiling) bud (i.e. the beloved)? It is time for the enjoyment of friends, where is that tulip of the garden (i.e. the beloved)?
2. Every time that she laughed, a thousand like me became her slaves, and a hundred dead ones were revived by that lip: where, oh where! Is the soother (lit. remedy) of my pains?
3. They tell me to quit love, and devise means of comfort; where is a helpless man who can command contrivances, and where is the mad one who is possessed of comforts? (i.e. these are impossibilities).
4. Khizr moistened his lips and drank the water of life with joy through his luck and good fortune, whereas, Alexander ran in the search (of it) to find out where the fountain of life was.
5. Shouldst thou give up thy life, thou wouldst obtain security, so said she to me, every time. Here, with my life, I yield obedience to the command, but where is that disobedient friend?
6. I said, so long as I have that bright soul, it is you yourself in this frame of mine; you said, “indeed, it is I”; but if this is you, where is the soul itself?
7. You said to me, “Practise patience, assume unbounded humility, and make me thy own by this means; here, I have practiced this; but where is that (i.e. the promised reward)?
8. If in our lane, thou shouldst not pass openly even once a month, where is (i.e. why dost thou not make) a secret inquiry (after us), occasionally; with the point of thy eyelashes.
9. Ere this, I was always thy companion. Is not Khusrau after all the same? Where (then) are those promises and those pledges?