The Secret Rose Garden

The Secret Rose Garden
of Sad Ud Din Mahmud Shabistari, Translated by Florence Lederer

It is nearly seven hundred years since Mahmūd planted his garden with roses of Love and Adoration, of Reason and of spiritual Illumination. Since then many have wandered there, lingering in the secret paths and plucking the scented blossoms to carry back into the world of shadows and unreality. What is the fadeless colour of these Roses? What is their lasting grace of form, and what perfumed attar from them lingers on through the ages?The poem opens with the statement of the sole existence of the One Real Being, and of the illusion of this worlds mirage.

Part I. The Perfect Face of the Beloved
Part II. Beauty
Part III. The Sea and its Pearls
Part IV. The Journey
Part V. Time and This Dream-World
Part VI. Reflections
Part VII. Divine Inebriation
Part VIII. Reason and Free-Will
Part IX. Man: His Capabilities and His Destiny
Part X. The One
Part XI. The Self
Part XII. Idols, Girdles, and Christianity
Part XIII. Thoughts
Part XIV. The Light Manifest