The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, by Ibn al-Arabi, tr. Reynold A. Nicholson, [1911], at sacred-texts.com
XXXIII
1. I respond with diverse notes of grief to every cooing dove perched upon a bough in a grove.
2. She weeps for her mate without tears, but from my eyelids the tears of sorrow are streaming.
3. I say to her, when my eyelids have shed their abundant tears in token of my inward state,
4. 'Hast thou any knowledge of those whom I love, and did they rest at midday in the shadows of the branches?'
COMMENTARY
1. 'Every cooing dove,' i.e. subtle spiritual essences which appear in forms of the intermediate world.
2. 'From my eyelids,' etc.: because of my bodily existence.
4. 'Did they rest,' etc., i.e. did they show themselves in the shades of this natural organism, so that I may seek them there?