Troubles for me are cooking in my Beloved’s kitchen of grief.
Every moment hundreds of different meals of sorrow
are being served to my table.
The smell of a burning heart surrounds my table all the time.
I wonder. Where is this smell coming from?
Rubailer, Page 290, Rubai #1
One day your heart will take you to the One who caught your heart.
One day your soul will take you to the Beloved.
Don’t let go of the skirt of your pain.
One day your pain will take you to the Remedy.
Rubailer, Page 474, Rubai #3
You excite this crowd every day
by erasing thousands of well-beings down below.
This is fate. It goes on as long as the wheel of fortune turns.
Please, be kind and generous to the souls of the poor.
Rubailer, Page 472, Rubai #3
My life has become nothing but longing.
O Beloved, what a beauty, what a charm is that?
I don’t clap my hands if You are not the player.
I don’t drink wine if You are not the cupbearer.
Rubailer, Page 471, Rubai #2
I am the wind, You are a leaf. When I blow, how can you not move?
If I give you an order, how can you ignore it?
What can you do if I throw a stone and break your jar?
Aren’t you worth hundreds of pearls, hundreds of seas?
Rubailer, Page 465, Rubai #2
I said, “O heart, you are in deep trouble.”
He responded, “I am content with my situation. Are you?”
I answered, “You need a remedy for your mind.”
He said, “If you are looking for a remedy, you are crazy.”
Rubailer, Page 460, Rubai #1
You eat kebab and drink wine.
But, know this well: You are eating and drinking in a dream created by you.
Once you wake up, you will still be hungry and thirsty.
The water you drink in your dream will never satisfy your true thirst.
Rubailer, Page 457, Rubai #1
If you become prey to God, you will be freed from sorrows.
If you run after your desires, you will stay a slave to your self.
You should know this very well: Your being is the curtain that conceals God from you.
Don’t stay with your self. If you do, you will be hurt time after time.
Rubailer, Page 454, Rubai #4
Man’s heart is like a candle: It should be lit and shine.
There is a void in man’s soul because of his being separated from the Beloved. That void needs to be repaired.
Know, O ignorant one who understands none of what makes or breaks a heart, who neither smiles nor cries,
Love isn’t knowledge to be learned, but something to be encountered,
Rubailer, Page 449, Rubai #2
You are satisfied, but I haven’t had enough of this drink.
I am annihilated, but you are still alive.
The millstone turns and cries quietly
As long as water flows through the canal.
Rubailer, Page 432, Rubai #1