I love You with all my heart and soul.
That’s my sin.
Why do You turn Your face from my pale saffron one?
Either take care of this bleeding heart
or give me the patience found in the words,
“God does whatever He desires.”
We came to the crossroads after a long walk.
One road was, “Be patient.”
The other was, “Give thanks for the blessing.”
But, I can’t see either one without the light of Your face.
No water flows in any canal when You turn Your face away.
Particles don’t appear if the Sun doesn’t rise at early dawn.
The hearts of beauties can’t be dizzy and drunk without Your wine.
How can the devil run from the truth that “God is the only one”
if You don’t protect us?
If You don’t add a palmful of herbs to the medicine with Your own hand,
it can be neither pill nor paste.
Without the uproar of Your clouds, the Sun can’t enter the sign of the lion.
Without You, no artery pulsates in the hands and feet of the devout.
You hide meaning in death, awakeness in sleep.
You get spring water from stone and manifest faithfulness in lightning.
The dark torrent of the night carries away the mind and intelligence.
Who better to bring them back than the follower of a mature man?
O Soul of the whole or Soul of the part!
O One who provides a dress to cover garden and meadow!
O One who invites soul with the drumbeat, the chant,
“Come, O wandering soul!”
Everyone wants to cheat me, to tax me.
But I don’t have the mind to understand such a word as “tax.”
From wherever understanding comes, go in that direction.
Whoever makes your life longer, pray for Him to have a long life.
The One who squeezes your heart, who makes you green and grow,
who gives the color of rose to your face,
He is the One who forces you to pray, who accepts and grants your prayers.
He adds the letter “r” to be, nun to elif
in order to say the names of God which give breath and power to the mouth.
O munificent One, I follow Your orders, saying,
“I accept your invitation.”
With Your Love in my heart, I keep turning like a millstone.
The millstone turns and turns,
but the mill doesn’t understand that our nourishment
comes from that turning.
So does the miller’s income.
Water is the one which turns the stone.
When God stops the water, nothing moves.
Be silent.
All these words are coming from our secret.
Be silent,
so that the One who doesn’t slip in His talk can tell the rest.
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 1, Ghazel 24, verses 304-321, pages 60-62.