{"id":10943,"date":"2013-10-04T11:04:09","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T15:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=10943"},"modified":"2013-10-04T11:04:09","modified_gmt":"2013-10-04T15:04:09","slug":"from-the-diwan-of-mansur-al-hallaj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/from-the-diwan-of-mansur-al-hallaj\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Diwan of Mansur al-Hallaj"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago Jerry Rothenberg published some of my translations of the work of the 10C Baghdadi poet & mystic Mansur al-Hallaj (who is also central to my recent book of poems, Meditations on the Stations of Mansur al-Hallaj<\/em><\/a> \u2014 Chax Press 2013). Below the opening section; the complete post (with a commentary on al-Hallaj & a poem from Meditations<\/em>) can be found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Outside & Subterranean Poems, a Mini-Anthology in Progress (57): Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj (Persian, 10th century A.D.): from The Divan<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The execution of Mansur al-Hallaj, 1602 AD (1011 AH)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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from the section:\u00a0Dereliction<\/i><\/p>\n

81.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Y\u00e2 sirra sirr\u00ee\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n

O my secret\u2019s secret, you have dwindled so much you\u2019re hidden from the thought of the living, and yet a\u00a0hidden-manifest<\/i>\u00a0of you has appeared in all things for all things.<\/p>\n

\n

My excuse to you is a profound ignorance, a vast doubt, and total powerlessness.\u00a0O you, all\u2019s completeness, you are no different than me! But then, what\u2019s my excuse to myself?<\/p>\n

\n

83.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>\u2018Ajibtu<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
I\u2019m dumbfounded! How can my part hold up my whole
\nwhen my earth cannot bear the load of my part?<\/p>\n
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If there was a palanquin large enough to cover earth,
\nmy heart would have to shrink to stretch out\u00a0on it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n

84.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Hammaltum<\/i><\/p>\n

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You impose on the heart what the body cannot carry
\n& the faithful heart shoulders what bodies\u00a0couldn\u2019t carry.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
Could I draw close to those who take shelter\u00a0in you\u00a0<\/span>
\nby becoming an eye to gaze at you or, better,\u00a0an ear.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago Jerry Rothenberg published some of my translations of the work of the 10C Baghdadi poet & mystic Mansur al-Hallaj (who is also central to my recent book of poems, Meditations...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,91,103,1],"tags":[1152],"class_list":["post-10943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arab-culture","category-poetry","category-translation","category-uncategorized","tag-mansur-al-hallaj"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10943"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10965,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10943\/revisions\/10965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}