"Mystics! What was hidden now stands for all to see."

 

Crimson Clover © 2021 Chuck Egerton

O Nightingales!
An Ode by Bahá’u’lláh

Nightingales! The season of flowers and trees has come. Mystics! What was hidden now stands for all to see.

 
Lovers! Look! Your Beloved just unveiled her face. Seekers! Look now on the One you had longed to see. 

Beauty has dawned, the lights of God shine bright. Flee the prison of your self—Rise up and be free.

That veiled Beloved, Ruler of the highest realm, now walks here, as Joseph did, through square and alley.

 
She was hidden ‘neath the Mount of infinity. 
She was there concealed from us for eternity. 

Look! She has dawned now, like the morning sun, 
shedding her light from mountain to prairie. 

 
For the fragrance of Her musk-laden locks, 
for the sweetness, the sugar of Her lips, 

Her lovers now will roam the marketplace
seeking the door of the perfumery. 

Wine jars overflow, reason is struck dumb. 
Mortal poison turns to balm—the Cup of God is heavy.

 
Prayer beads for infidels, hypocrisy no more. 
The men devoted to Her love drink in the winery. 

False piety in hiding now, deceit is so ashamed. 
Her slender body floats like a bird over land and sea. 

The hidden Treasure manifest, 
now the phoenix of soul flies free. 

All mysteries have been unveiled, 
and all the veils burned utterly. 

The nightingale leaps to the rose. 
The lover dives into love’s sea. 

The caged parrot returns to the forest. 
Strangers are friends: and strangers friends will be.

Provisional Translation by Nader Saiedi and Anthony A. Lee

http://www.elixir-journal.org/issue6/translation1.php