The Words | 17. Word - Second Station | 231
(222-238)

 [About twenty-five years ago on Yuşa Tepesi (Mount Joshua) above the Istanbul Bosphorus, at a time I had decided to give up the world, a number of important friends came to me in order to call me back to the world and my former position. I told them to leave me till the following morning so that I could seek guidance. That morning the following two Tables were imparted to my heart. They resemble poetry, but they are not. I have not changed them for the sake of that blessed memory, and they have been kept as they occurred to me. They were added to the Twenty-Third Word, and now have been included here on account of their 'station'.]

THE FIRST TABLE

[The Table depicting the reality of the world of the heedless.]

Don't call me to the world;                                      -I came, and saw it was transitory.

Heedlessnesswas a veil;                                   -I saw the light of truth was concealed.

All the beings in existence,                                         -I saw were ephemeral, harmful.

If you say, being, I dressed in it;                  - Alas! It was non-being; I suffered much!

If you say, life, I tasted it;                                       -I saw it was torment upon torment.

The mind became pure torture;                               - I saw permanence to be tribulatio

Life became pure whim;                                             -I saw attainment to be pure loss.

Deeds became pure hypocrisy;                                         -I saw hopes to be pure pain.

Union became parting itself;                                                  -I saw the cure to be the ill.

These lights became darkness;                                    -I saw these friends to be orphans.

These voices became announcements of death;                   -I saw the living to be dead.

Knowledge was transformed into fancy;                 I saw in science a thousand ailments.

Pleasure became pure pain;              -I saw existence to be compounded non-existence.

If you say the Beloved, I found him;     -     Alas! On separation I suffered grievous pain.

No Voice

The Words