Daqūqī and the Seven Candles
Seven Lights Becoming One
Masnavi III.1984–1995 · tr. R. A. Nicholson, 1930When I came on foot to a certain shore, the day had turned late, and ’twas eventide.Of a sudden I beheld from afar seven candles and hastened along the shore towards them.The light of the flame of each candle thereof ascended beauteously to the loft of the sky.I became amazed, (so that) even amazement (itself) became amazed: the waves of bewilderment passed over the head of my understanding.(I thought), ‘What kind of candles are these (that) He hath lighted, so that the eyes of His creatures are screened from them?’The people had gone to seek a lamp in the presence of that (sevenfold) candle which was surpassing the moon (in splendour).Wonderful! There was a bandage over their eyes: they were bound by (the Divine destiny implied in the text) He guideth aright those whom He will.Then I saw the seven (candles) become one, its light cleaving the bosom (rim) of the sky.Then again that one became seven once more: my intoxication and bewilderment waxed mighty.(There were) such connexions between the candles as may not come (may not be uttered) on my tongue and (in) my speech.That which one look perceives, ’tis impossible during years to show it forth by the tongue.That which intellectual apprehension sees in one moment, ’tis impossible during years to hear it by the ear.
- First attested
- 1278No autograph survives. The oldest witness to the Mathnawī is the Qoniya manuscript, which Nicholson designated G, judged “the most authoritative text of the Mathnawi”, and dated 677 A.H. = A.D. 1278, five years after Rūmī's death. His printed text is founded on G only from Book III, v. 2836, so III.1984–1995 was first edited from later copies; the Appendix to his 1930 volume, which lists every change G requires in the English of Books I, II and III vv. 1–2835, lists none for these twelve lines.
The seer doubts his own sanity. Five lines after imagining the passers-by calling him mad (III.2020), Daqūqī asks, “Or have I become mad and crazy?” (III.2025). He climbs the trees and eats their fruit: “How can it be a dream?” (III.2027). Five lines later the doubt returns: “Am I beside myself?” (III.2032).
Mathnawī III.2020–2032, in Nicholson's translation of Books III and IV (Gibb Memorial Series, 1930)
A wandering saint sees seven candles on a shore become one and then seven, while the passers-by see nothing.
The tale of Daqūqī begins at Mathnawī III.1924: a saint who would not spend two days in one village and who, for all his piety, “was always seeking the elect (the saints) of God” (III.1945). At evening on a shore he sees seven candles whose light climbs to the sky, while the people nearby go looking for a lamp. The seven become one and then seven again. He runs, falls senseless, rises, and sees them as seven men, then as seven trees so laden that their leaves have almost vanished, trees no passing caravan notices. The trees become one tree, stand in ritual prayer, become men again, greet him by name, and ask him to lead them in prayer (III.2064). Later, at prayer on the shore, he hears a ship in distress and intercedes for it, and the Seven, offended, vanish. The passage here is III.1984–1995.
Light
It gives the experience of seeing what no one else sees without flattering the seer: Daqūqī runs until he falls, lies senseless in the dust, and later asks whether he has gone mad, answers himself by climbing the trees and eating their fruit, and then asks again.
Shadow
The crowd is written off. Their eyes are bandaged by divine decree (III.1990) and sealed by the wrath of God (III.2012), and the narrator's comment on them is “A hundred spittings on (such) distorted eyes!” (III.2011).
