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The Sign of Tracelessness

I swear that as long as I am alive

          I shall not feel offended by You;

I shall walk to Your district

          and place my head on Your doorstep.


My hope of union with You

          was a vain fancy.

How can a temporal being reach the Eternal?

          How could I ever think this?


I shall not lament my separation from You

          because You are completely faithful;

it is because of my heart and eyes

          that I moan and cry.


Through Your eyes I search for

          an image of Your face —

this is the sole token

          of my tracelessness.


I have heard that You remember me

          every moment

because I have kept the memory of Your face

          in the core of my soul.


Through yearning, I became freed

          from the memory of self.

How then could the house of my heart

          preserve the memory of other things?


Since Nurbakhsh has no opportunity

          to speak,

I will recount his state

          on his behalf.

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