The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys
The Seven Valleys : the Valley of Contentment
Although to outward view, the wayfarers in this Valley may dwell upon the dust, yet inwardly they are throned in the heights of mystic meaning; they eat of the endless bounties of inner significances, and drink of the delicate wines of the spirit.
The tongue faileth in describing these three Valleys, and speech falleth short. The pen steppeth not into this region, the ink leaveth only a blot. In these planes, the nightingale of the heart hath other songs and secrets, which make the heart to stir and the soul to clamor, but this mystery of inner meaning may be whispered only from heart to heart, confided only from breast to breast.
Only heart to heart can speak the bliss of mystic knowers;
No messenger can tell it and no missive bear it.54
I am silent from weakness on many a matter,
For my words could not reckon them and my speech would fall short.55
O friend, till thou enter the garden of such mysteries, thou shalt never set lip to the undying wine of this Valley. And shouldst thou
54 Háfiz: Shamsu’ḍ-Dín Muḥammad, of Shíráz, died ca. 1389 A.D. One of the greatest of Persian poets.
55 Arabian poem.
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