Earthly Beauty
Statement on Mass Martyrdom of Egyptian Sufis

by Ashk Sylejman
quora.com
November 26, 2017

http://www.islamicpluralism.org/2660/earthly-beauty

Our founder grants permission to post this poem in response to the mass martyrdom of Sufis in Egypt. Please review our guidance here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF0IrZA_tjs.

Luciana Zana Trëndafilazezë

International Director

Our Zana.

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The flag of the Bektashi Sufi order – Illustration Via Flags of the World.

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Swans knocked at my door, and I answered

In untranslatable idioms, my own;

While reading In Defense of the Earth;

And writing in defense of the heart.

I found you, half-hidden in the light

Of the Sarajevo synagogue;

Your lips shone pale, with a lunar glow.

Then you were another, and disappeared.

Measure the distance lying between yourself

And the world of roses. Flowers, fruit and thorns:

Remember the blackberries, on the train to Zagreb,

After the last call to prayer in Maglaj.

Everything began and ended there:

I read Gotovac to you, quoting Mansur Hallaj –

In prison, Yugoslav guards confiscated his book –

We passed Omarska, with its terrible name.

I remembered that limo ride in Washington:

The Moroccan driver showed us photographs

Of an orchard in the High Atlas mountains:

Heavy with pears, on his father's property.

I wanted to take you there, in hijab;

To hear the divine music, the Muslim Bach

Played on an instrument of metal

Salvaged from bits of junk, by a servant of God.

Once I thought I invented you, how little

I knew. You waited for me. I lived,

Frail with shame, utterly unknowing;

Young, a bullet smoldering in my brain.

Later came a moment in the courtyard

Of the Governor's Mosque, in the Baščaršija;

Your head was covered by a silken scarf;

But your light burned too bright for evening prayer.

Earthly beauty: daybreak is your night;

In clothing, you conceal the sun of your flesh.

Night is the daybreak of your body

As your garments descend, with light restored.

1966-2004

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