If you wish to know yourself, seek the soul within the soul; pass beyond your soul, find it; know yourself, yourself.
If you wish to know yourself
Seek the soul within the soul
Pass beyond your soul, find it
Know yourself, yourself
Hacı Bayram-ı Veli, hymn "If you wish to know yourself", stanza 1 (Musa Kaval, "Hacı Bayram Veli'nin Şiirlerinde İnsanın İkilemi", Tasavvuf 52, 2023, pp. 61-90).
Often attributed to Yunus.
The words are Hacı Bayram's.
Seeking the soul within the soul.
The kernel within the shell.
To find, you must pass beyond.
Beyond the soul you cling to.
Then comes the refrain:
know yourself.
Twice, so it is not forgotten.