Translation of Arabic choruses
Metaphors in Sufi Poetry
From Selections by Dr. Nahid Angha. Published by the International Association of Sufism, San Rafael, CA. 1991.
(Words in parentheses are Farsi)
Allah - Generally means God, C reator, Source of Life. The Holy Qu'ran describes Allah as the light of the earth and of the skies.
Alchemy (kymia) - In Sufi poetry alchemy represents the process of purification of the heart.
Angha - Phoenix, the bird which rises from the ashes.
Beloved (ma'ashough) - Refers to God, Allah, who is the Beloved and Friend in Sufism. The eternal beauty.
Black Hair (gisouy-e-siyah) - Hair represents the path taken by the seeker; black refers to the essence of the Divine.
Breath (nafas) - Life. In terms of Sufism, a person who becomes stable and balanced in his/her own being will receive the Divine breath, and this new breath will take him/her to the stage of spiritual life and living.
Breeze of Dawn (ha'ad-e-saba'a) - The Divine breath.
Candle (shamm) - The Divine light that shines into the heart of the salek and illuminates his/her heart.
Cup (ja'am) - The heart of the Sufi filled with Divine illumination and awareness.
Drunk (mast, madhoush) - The state of ecstasy a seeker falls into through practices of meditation and concentration.
Ecstasy (bikhodi) - State of rapture and annihilation in the Divine.
Elixir (exiri) - Metaphor from alchemy that signifies the perfected human.
Falcon (baaz, ughaab) - Refers to the intellect and sometimes to the nature or the world of possibilities.
Ghaf - Highest mountain peak; goal of the seeker's journey.
Heart (del, ghalb ) - Heart has many meanings, but especially a metaphor for Divine treasure where the secrets of the hidden can be understood.
Love (eshgh) - Extreme attraction; in Sufi poetry it has been referred to as that fire which burns the lover and so purifies him/her, and also to the ocean that drowns the lover into the stages of annihilation.
Moth (parvaneh) - Salek or lover, attracted to the flame of the candle of Divine understanding.
Nafs - Self, ego, nature.
Pain (dard) - Longing for the Beloved.
Pen (ghalam) - Refers to the verse of the Qu'an where it is recorded that the whole world of creation is like a book, with beings as its words written by the pen of destiny and by the hand of intellect.
Poor (gedaa, faghir ) - One searching for the Divine manifestation to whom anything other than the Divine holds no value.
Salek - Spiritual seeker.
Tablet (louh) - Refers to the abstract unity and has also been used to mean the essence of a human being.
Tulip (laleh)- The reflection of the beauty of the Beloved upon the heart of the lover.
Tur - The mountain where Moses received his inspiration.
Wine (mey, shara'ah, ba'adeh) - The extremity of love that occurs only at the state of perfection.
Wine Bearer - Allah, the Divine, the Beloved.
Winery (khomkhaneh, meykaddeh)- The celestial world, but also the inner self or the heart of the perfected Sufi.
