Walk Nicely Now (3/28/2021)

Walk Nicely Now (3/28/2021)

Ascend to the sky from this banal world.

Your soul will be blessed if you do.

Walk nicely now.

 

Yes, you have jumped out from this town which is so full of sickness and shivering.

Now, make your home the land of happiness and joy.

 

If the painting of your body is destroyed, return to the Painter.

If your flesh is decayed, be content with being pure soul.

 

If your face is withered because of death,

settle down in the purple-colored tulip garden.

 

If they close the door of the house on you,

come up from the roof. Become your own ladder.

 

If you are separated from friends and relatives,

if you find yourself all alone,

become the King of the Auspicious Conjunction,*

acquainted with God’s friendship.

 

If you are separated from bread and water,

turn into the kind of bread

which gives power directly to hearts and souls.

*Refers to at least one Mughal king who claimed he was born under the auspicious conjunction of Jupiter and Venus.

Divan-i Kebir, Volume 18, Ghazal 189, verses 18821-1887, page 148.

I Will Rise (2/14/2021)

I Will Rise (2/14/2021)

I am not the kind of lion which fights with the enemy.

I fight with my self. That’s enough for me.

 

I have become dirt for Love’s feet, but am settled in the knowledge

that I will rise from the ground like a rose, like an iris. Continue reading “I Will Rise (2/14/2021)”

The Light Calling Out (1/3/2021)

The Light Calling Out (1/3/2021)

I don’t know how I became annihilated from that wine.

I don’t know where I am because of the beauty of placelessness.

 

Once I was at the bottom of the sea.

but then I rose like the sun. Continue reading “The Light Calling Out (1/3/2021)”

From the Breath of Love (12/13/2020)

From the Breath of Love (12/13/2020)

I come slowly like water under straw

and carry away the mountain as if it were a piece of straw.

 

I drip from the gutter, drop by drop.

But, like a flood, I pick up and carry away hundreds of palaces. Continue reading “From the Breath of Love (12/13/2020)”

In That Heart (11/15/2020)

Heart (11/15/2020)

What kind of work bench do You have in that heart?

What idols are You carving in that heart?

 

Spring has come. It is seed time.

Who knows what You are sowing in that heart?

 

Outside, You are covered with curtains of secrecy.

But, You are wide open in the middle of that heart.

 

The person who searches gets his feet stuck in the mud.

But, You scratch his head in that heart.

 

If a heart were not bigger and greater than the skies,

You wouldn’t ride the Moon in that heart.

 

If a heart were not such a big city,

no Sultan could fit in, move around in that heart.

 

O my Soul, the heart is an amazing forest.

You are the master of hunting in that heart.

 

There are thousands of waves which move in the sea of heart.

You harvest pearls in that heart.

 

I have kept silent,

because even if one tries to describe its qualities,

no mind can comprehend the heart.

Divan-i Kebir, Volume 18, Ghazal 103, verses 1024-1032, pages 3-4.