From Nobody, Son of Nobody, ‘renditions’ of poems by the 10th/11th century Sufi Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir (alternately rendered as Abu Sa’id Abu’l-Khayr).
Some argue destiny and free will unceasingly,
others negotiate rewards, garden palaces
with ever virgin concubines,
while yet others pride themselves
in the constant braying of their intellect.
Like the receding clamor of a caravan
leaving the center, fading into the ocean of this desert,
far, far away it all moves from this Silence,
which sits at Your gate, Beloved.
There’s another more recent edition of his poems I’ve not been able to look at but otherwise his presence in English seems limited to more or less brief mention as a major shaper of the Sufi tradition.
Extracts 