TB-Saqi

ساقی از غيب بقا

Stephen N. Lambden

Revised from Notes dating to the 1980s.

 TB2B: 03 (Per.) Sāqī āz ghayb-i baqā'   ("The Cupbearer of the Invisible Eternity")

According to Ishrāq Khavarī  this poem dates to the years 1270-71 or between 4th Oct. 1853 and 13th Sept. 1855  (Ganj:12), dating to the time of Bahā'-Allāh's residence in Sulaymaniyah (Iraqi Kurdistan).

The text of the Sāqī āz ghayb-i baqā'   is contained Ma'idih 4:209-211 (see below) and INBMC 36:455. As cited in Ganj-i Shayigan (ed. `Abd al-Hamid Ishraq Khavai) p.12 it opens as follows:

ساقی از غيب بقا برقع برافكن از عذار

                تا بنوشم خمر باقی از جمال ذوالجلال

آنچه در خم خانه داری نشكند صفرای عشق

                زان شراب معنوی ساقی همی بحری بيار

The concluding lines are:

گر خيال جان همی هستت بدل اينجا ميا

                ور نثار جان و سر داری بياو هم بيار

رسم ره اينست گر وصل بهأ داری طلب

                ور نباشی مرد اين ره دور شو زحمت ميار

Commonly referred to by means of its opening words, Saqī az ghayb-i baqā'  this Persian qaṣīda  (ghazal)  is fifteen couplets long and is usually dated to the period of Baha'-Allah's withdrawal in Iraqi Kurdistan (Ganj. :12., Taherzadeh RB I:64). In it Baha'-Allah implores the Divine Beloved, the celestial Cupbearer, to unveil herself so that he might quaff the "wine of eternity" (khamr-i baqā')  from the all-beauteous Creator. He underlines the intense ardour his desire for her mystic wine and dwells on the consuming fire of his love for her beauty (see line lff).

In response to his pleading the Divine Beloved speaks of the sublime detachment necessary for the mystic wayfarer who aspires to enter her court or attain true reunion (see line 7ff). The lover who seeks to become privy to the "mysteries of love" (asrár-i `ishq)  must so open  their inner eye that they might perceive the Mount of Moses (ṭūr-i mūsa)  circumambulating the Divine Beloved and the Spirit of Jesus (rūḥ-i `īsā) unsettled by her love (line 10, text in Ma'idih 4:210 + INBMC 36:45). 

It appears that Baha'-Allah addresses the Divine Beloved in line 13(b) as the "Messiah of the Age" (masīḥa-yi zamān)  and, in the final couplet (15), refers to himself as the "Dervish of the World" (darwīsh-i jihān)  who is passionately on fire on account of the "brand of the Divine Ravisher of Hearts".

       It may be that the Saqī az ghayb-i baqā'  is expressive of Baha'-Allah's own burning desire to disclose his secret messianic calling, the revelatory potentialities of his celestial Logos-Self, this being the reality of the Heavenly Cupbearer with whom union is to be sought. It was on account of this Beloved that Moses and Jesus are enraptured. Worth noting in this respect is the fact that in line 8(a) it is reunion with Bahā' (waṣl-i bahā)  that is to be sought.