"Spring longs to rifle thy parterre. For the flowers in thy hand are fresher than those on his branch. I've so closed my lips from speech that you'd say 'His mouth is but a scar on his face.'" [258]
"Both first and last, Love is aye music and joy-- A pleasant wine both when fresh and when mellow.
"Were I glass instead of body, I'd reveal thee to thyself without thy unveiling. Two lips have I; one for drinking, And one to apologize for drunkenness."
On Monday, the 14th, Husaini s. Sultan Qiwam produced this quatrain:
"A speck of dust sprinkled on thee from thy skirt Becomes Solomon's collyrium; from the moisture of thy face [259] Were the earth at thy door examined, The sweat of kings' brows would exude."
At this time Mu`tamid K. repeated a quatrain which greatly pleased me, and which I entered in my common-place book:
"You give me the poison of parting to taste, (and say) 'What matters it?' You shed my blood and expel me (and say), 'What matters it?' O, heedless of what your dividing sword can do, Sift my dust and then you'll know."
Talib (i.e., Baba Talib) is by family an Isfahani. In his early youth he went to Kashmir clothed as an ascetic and calendar, and from the beauty of the place and the pleasantness of the climate set his heart on the country and settled there. After the conquest of Kashmir he joined the service of the late king (Akbar), and became enrolled among the servants of the Presence. His age is now nearly 100 years, and he is now with his sons and dependants in Kashmir, engaged in praying for the everlasting State.
As it was reported to me that in Lahore one Miyan Shaikh Muhammad Mir by name, who was a Darvish, a Sindi by origin, very eloquent, virtuous, austere, of auspicious temperament, a lord of ecstasy, had seated himself in the corner of reliance upon God and retirement, and was rich in his poverty and independent of the world, my truth-seeking mind was not at rest without meeting him, and my desire to see him increased. As it was impossible to go to Lahore, I wrote a note to him, and explained to him the desire of my heart, and that saint, notwithstanding his great age and weakness, took the trouble to come. I sate with him for a long time alone, and enjoyed a thorough interview with him. Truly he is a noble personage, and in this Age he is a great gain and a delightful existence. This suppliant for Grace was taken out of himself by companionship with him, [261] and heard from him sublime words of truth and religious knowledge. Although I desired to make him some gift, I found that his spirit was too high for this, and so did not express my wish. I left him the skin of a white antelope to pray upon, and he immediately bade me farewell and went back to Lahore.