اگر پنهان بود پیدا
Agar Penhan Bowad Paida
“If Hidden, It Becomes Visible”
Lyrics
Lyrics updated · July 2026English Translation
If the hidden were manifest — I am that manifest hidden one If the ignorant were wise — I am that wise ignorant one
I am the huma of the sacred grove, not prey to bait and snare I am the pheasant of paradise, not a bird of this garden
I am that alert drunk whose hand was never without the cup I will not say I am not — I am; yes, both this and that
I am the moon to the celestial sphere of love, the king of love's world I kiss the sleeves of idols, I recite the praises of the magi
Transliteration
Agar penhan bowad paida, man an paidaye penhanam Wagar nadan bowad dana, man an danaye nadanam
Homaye golshane qodsam na sayde dana o damam Tazaro bagh ferdawsam, na morghe ein golestanam
Man an hoshyare sarmastam, ke nabowad be qadah dastam Nagoyam nestam, hastam, baly ham ein o ham anam
Seper meher ra maham, jahan ishq o ra shaham Botan ra astin bosam, moghan ra afarin khwanam
متن اصلی
اگر پنهان بود پیدا، من آن پیدای پنهانم و گر نادان بود دانا، من آن دانای نادانم
همای گلشن قدسم نه صید دانه و دامم تذرو باغ فردوس ام، نه مرغ این گلستانم
من آن هوشیار سرمستم، که نبود بی قدح دستم نگویم نیستم، هستم، بلی هم این و هم آنم
سپهر مهر را ماهم، جهان عشق را شاهم بتان را آستین بوسم، مغان را آفرین خوانم
If the hidden were manifest — I am that manifest hidden one. If the ignorant were wise — I am that wise ignorant one. A poem of spiritual paradox and self-assertion: the Huma, the alert drunk, the moon to the sphere of love.
About This Recording
'If the hidden were manifest — I am that manifest hidden one / If the ignorant were wise — I am that wise ignorant one' — the opening move is paradox-as-identity: the speaker is both poles of every binary. The hidden and the manifest, the ignorant and the wise. This is not confusion but a specific claim about the kind of being that inhabits both at once.
'I am the huma of the sacred grove, not prey to bait and snare / I am the pheasant of paradise, not a bird of this garden' — the Huma (also Homa) is a legendary Persian bird that flies perpetually without landing and whose shadow brings kingship to whoever it falls upon. To be the Huma is to be beyond capture. 'Not a bird of this garden' places the speaker outside the ordinary world — a creature of a different order.
'I kiss the sleeves of idols, I recite the praises of the magi' — the antinomian ending is classic Sufi gesture. To kiss the sleeves of idols violates Islamic prohibition on idol worship; to recite the praises of the magi (Zoroastrian priests) crosses religious boundaries. These are the boundary-violations that, in Sufi poetry from Hafiz onward, mark the authentic mystic — someone for whom the path to God runs through and past the restrictions that formal religion sets.
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