There was a sailor once in many harbors hailed,
Who full a thousand times had o'er the ocean sailed.
He had a boy majestic as the sun at noon,
And lovely as at evening is the cloud-poised moon.
His cheek was rosy red, and heavenly blue his eye;
So straight his shape, the cypress could not with him vię.
The father was a pious man in every way,
The blameless youth pure as a breath of breaking day.
At last the father must another voyage make,
And will from fervent love his darling with him take.
As to the strand they come, the crew are weeping there;
For each himself from brothers, parents, friends, must tear.
They go bidding their loves adieu from door to door,
And in the resurrection day they'll meet once more.
The father and his son, too, step aboard apace,
And from the deafening crowd and clamor reach their place.
The sail is spread: the ship the even billows rides,
The youth says: "Father, why didst thou exchange our life
Of beauteous peace, to face the wrathful ocean's strife?
No house is on the waves, no palace on the sea.
Come back, and on the flood again I will not be."
As through the unimpeding air an arrow glides.
Then says the father: "All the world, my child, behold,
Driven right and left and near and far by lust and gold.
'Tis sweet to sail the sea, for, when the danger's o'er,
Great wealth and honor is the fruit the danger bore."
To him the boy: "Father, no prize this brings, methinks;
For fame or pleasure, thus won, soon to nothing sinks.
Father, alas! thy vain discourse has given me pain;
Oh, let me leave the sea, and go on shore again!"
Replies the father: "Dearest boy, give me thy trust;
Compared with thee, my gold and silver are but dust.
My child, where'er I look, there is of thee some trace:
The earth, moon, sun, and sky are mirrors of thy face.
'Tis but from love for thee that I the ocean plough:
Should'st thou go hence, O son, my life would fail me now!"
"Dear father, thou know'st not the mystery aright.
Let me reveal to thee the Absolute's own light.
Know, father, in the heart I dwell of the Alone.
Simorg am I, the mountain infinite my throne.
A Revelation saw I from the flood upshoot,
Saw rise from th' sea an image of the Absolute."
"Dear soul," then said the father, "cease from such discourse:
Before an old man boastest thou thy wisdom's source?
O infant! with the shell of Law be thou content;
Truth absolute is not as sport to children sent."
"Father," replies the youth, "my eye towards home is turned;
I see the way for which my heart has ever yearned.
The sea's a symbol how one must destroy self's root:
Upon the inmost self-hood now exults my foot.
Love waves a flaming torch and goes as guide before.
Reason, begone! who follows love needs thee no more.
I see but One, and quickly fling the rest behind:
His love's bright eye alone I seek to find."
In rage, the father cries: "Silence this instant keep,
Pert babbler, ere I throw thee in the yawning deep.
My precious gem, in need of reason thou dost stand;
The Absolute is not for thee, but Law's firm land."
"Thou understand'st me not," the love-drunk stripling cries:
"Know in each soul the hidden Loved One slumbering lies.
Know that I to myself seem as the sea of life:
I see my spirit with thee and all beings rife.
Why shall I not the truth announce? not I am heard:
I fade away, and God himself speaks through my word.
Would'st cast me in the sea? Ah, father, quickly do!
There, lost to self, the wave will give me life that's true.
Father, I am the Loved One: Godhead through me gleams;
Incessant Revelation in my bosom streams;
And Revelation says, 'Thy soul's a prisoner chained
In the ship of Time and Space whoever sinks has gained.'
Says Revelation, 'Swiftly leap beneath God's waves:
'Tis thus thy riddle, deathless Soul, solution craves.'
I am God, father, and my being sinks in him,
Even as a drop within the sea's stupendous rim."
He shouts, and springs amidst the waves from where he stands:
The crew, with bitter grief, lament and wring their hands.
As in the sun a pure snow-flake dissolves to tears,
The beauteous youth beneath the flood so disappears.
The father gazes where that plunge a gurgling makes:
A piercing groan from out his anguished bosom breaks.
Then, realizing all, sudden he looks around,
Steps to the frail edge, is gone with silent bound.
Like points within a circle, stand the crew all dumb:
Spell-bound each stands, like a pearl in the mussel numb.
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Notes from Wikiquote
"Miscellaneous", p. 213, no. 765 | "Godhead through me gleams" = Literally, Godhead fills me through and through