In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.
Chapter 44: The Bahālīl and Their Leaders in Bahlalah
If you are eager to perform an act of obedience,
do not clothe it in the robe of “later.”
Be like the bahālīl in their state:
they go with the present moment as a person of reason does.
Gather from the ears of grain already at hand,
and do not wait until next season.
The pouch for provision has been made ready
so that what you do not yet have may be gathered in.
Do not weep over what has slipped away,
lest what is here now escape you too.
Pay no heed to the force of sawfa,
nor to sīn. Set out with the one who sets out.
Perhaps, if you act with resolve,
you will have gained something worth having when you die.
Notlar
Translator’s note TN1003-1: Bahālīl is the plural of bahlūl. This chapter calls these figures “wise madmen” and uses bahlalah for their condition. Their habitual governance of themselves has been interrupted by a divine encounter, yet wisdom may come from them.
Translator’s note TN1003-2: The poem echoes several Arabic words for gathering and gaining, using the pouch or crop that takes in grain as an image for taking what the moment offers. Sawfa and the prefix sīn mark the future. The poet treats both as occasions for putting action off.