از سنگنای محبس تاریکی
Az Sangnae Mahbas Tareki
“From the Stone Prison of Darkness”
Lyrics
Lyrics updated · July 2026English Translation
From the narrow confines of the dark prison From the dark swamp of this world Hear my voice full of need O God, peerless and all-powerful
O God, how shall I speak of you? For from my own body I am tired and disgusted Every night at the threshold of your majesty As if hoping for another body
Only you are aware and you know The secret of that first transgression Only you are able to forgive The soul its original purity
Transliteration
Az tangnaee mahbase tariki Az manjalab teraye ein dunya Bange por as neyaz mara beshnaw Ah ay khodaye qadere be hamta
Ah ay khoda chigona tura goyam Ke az jesm khewesh khasta o bezaram Har shab bar astaan jalale tu Goye omide jism digar daram
Tanha tu agahye o tu medani Asarar an khataye nokhostin ra Tanha tu qaderi ke bebakhshaye Bar rohe man safaye nokhostin ra
متن اصلی
از تنگنای محبس تاریکی از منجلاب تیرۀ این دنیا بانگ پر از نیاز مرا بشنو آه، ای خدای قادر بی همتا
آه ای خدا چگونه ترا گویم کز جسم خویش خسته و بیزارم هرشب بر آستان جلال تو گویی امید جسم دگر دارم
تنها تو آگهی و تو میدانی اسرار آن خطای نخستین را تنها تو قادری که ببخشایی بر روح من صفای نخستین را
From the dark prison, from the dark swamp — a prayer of need. God addressed as the only one aware of the first transgression, the only one capable of restoring the soul's original purity.
About This Recording
Az Sangnae Mahbas Tareki — From the Narrow Confines of the Dark Prison — is a devotional poem addressed directly to God from within the condition of confinement. The prison is not metaphorical: the 'dark swamp of this world' compounds it with the image of the material world as a place of mire and diminished light.
The phrase 'dar sangnae mahbas' (in the narrow cell of the prison) draws on a tradition in Persian devotional poetry of describing human existence itself as imprisonment — the soul bound in the body, the body bound in the world. Release from this condition is not death but the restoration of the soul's original nature.
'Only you are aware and you know / The secret of that first transgression' — the azal-e awwal, the first transgression or the original covenant, is a reference to the Sufi concept of the pre-eternal moment when souls answered 'yes' to God's question 'Am I not your Lord?' — and were then sent into the forgetfulness of material existence. The prayer is to be returned to what the soul was before that forgetting.
More Songs
Not sure what to listen to next?
Discover Ahmad Zahir by Mood →