How Lucky (1/12/20)

How Lucky (1/12/10)

The soul’s Sultan pushes us from one play to another

as if we were pawns in a chess game.

I wonder if He wins. I wonder if He is ever checkmated.

After all, aren’t we the ones on trial?

 

He picked up our particles, gathered them together,

then kneaded them with the universe to make a paste.

 

He pierced our noses and inserted reins made of greed and lust

in order to pull us around the world like camels.

 

Who are we?

He put an oxen’s bell on the neck of the sky

and keeps crushing us under that sky as if we were sesame.

 

How lucky is that camel who has been tied by the halter of God’s Love.

He makes us drunk and excited while we are among the other camels.

Divan-i Kebir, Volume 15, Ghazal 6, verses 48-52, page 11.

The Only Way to Reach Eternity (9/22/19)

The Only Way to Reach Eternity (9/22/19)

Every moment, Your kindness follows after sorrow.

If this were not so, no one could stand this suffering.

 

Make me constantly drunk with the wine which gives no hangover.

I don’t want any other wine. Continue reading “The Only Way to Reach Eternity (9/22/19)”

I Have No Constancy, No Peace (6/30/19)

I Have No Constancy, No Peace (6/30/19)

He said, “I am the fire which burns you.”

I answered, “Yes, but Your Love and Your sun are in my heart.

 

“If I smell one rose without Your Love,

burn me right away like a thorn.” Continue reading “I Have No Constancy, No Peace (6/30/19)”

All the World’s Sorrows (6/9/19)

All the World’s Sorrows (6/9/19)

My Beloved whose scattered hair makes everyone confused,

whose sweet ruby lips scatter sugar and honey,

that Beloved asked me, “Are you sorry about our separation?”

I answered, “O my soul, so much so that all the world’s sorrows are in that sorry.”

Rubailer (2016), Rubai #3, page 33.