I AM FULL OF LOVE TONIGHT
I am full of love tonight
Come look into my eyes, and let’s go off
Sailing, my dear, on a long ocean ride.
This world will not touch you,
I will keep you snug upon my seat.
Let’s plot
To make the moon jealous
With a radiance leaping from your cheek.
I will be full of love tonight,
Come look into these ancient eyes!
And let’s go off sailing, my dear,
With our spirits intertwined.
Your body is just an old sandbar
In a speeding hourglass of time.
Love will turn the mouth of sorrow
Right side up.
Let your heart commence its destined
Laughing chime!
Hafiz will be brimful of love tonight,
Why ever be shy?
Come look into the playful eyes of my verse,
They are eternally branded,
Branded with
The Sun!
— Hafiz
This thread has filled me with so much love and joy and peace.
Thank you, Hakima.
Thank you for reminding me that the little wren, snuffling through the undergrowth, its tiny chest puffed up, can pierce my ego.
Too long have I forgotten the beauty, wisdom, serenity and the love of the Sufis.
Hafiz, Runi, Nasruddin, my heart is open again!
You walked by the riverside path with the fill pitcher upon your hip.
Why did you swiftly turn your face and peep at me through the fluttering veil?
That gleaming look from the dark came upon me like the breeze that sends a shiver through the rippling water and sweeps away to the shadowy shore.
It came to me like the bird of the evening that hurriedly flies across the lampless room from the one open window to the other, and disappears in the night.
But why did you stop from a moment and glance at my face through your veil while you walked up the riverside path with the full pitcher upon your hip?
Rabindranath Tagore
When the Eyes See Unity
When the eyes
See everyone in one,
And find the one in everyone,
When the manifestations of nature
Dissolve into beauty and grace,
Such a scene
Descends into the depths of the heart.
Those gazes
That penetrate to the core of reality,
That reveal the absolute manifestation
And open the doors of the heart
Forever.
Like "Ma Zaghal Basar" (The eye did not waver),
The power hidden behind veils
Shows its manifestation—
That which does not come into sight,
And also does not hide from sight.
These very eyes
Become the interpretation of the dream,
Encompassing the beloved within themselves.
I am that dreamer
Whose sight
Has no veil.
I capture beauty
In my mirror,
It is etched within my being
Forever,
No one else's gaze
Can peer into it.
These eyes
Say everything,
They smile even behind your veils,
They know
That even in the hijab of images
You are unveiled
When they see you.
Wherever you go,
They remain with you,
These eyes
Never close.
But—
These are not my eyes,
They are His gift.
Perhaps I am transgressing limits,
But I am the one
Who sees,
Even if someone issues a fatwa of disbelief.
I am the one
Who writes sacred thoughts
When inspired from beyond.
In the court of love,
The lover has to say—
Like Mansur:
"Ana al-Haq" (I am the Truth),
When reality
Is unveiled,
From the tongue
It spontaneously emerges:
"Ana al-Haq."
— Mykoul
I sent word to my beloved—
a message to return.
The forest frets endlessly
to own its newborn deer.
A wall was built before anger,
begin to create a song anew.
We are merely passing through—
let us walk the path of love.
With the beloved,
on a bed dyed red—
this is the cost of being born to earth.
The task of love’s naghaaraa, O Sanwal,
isto silence every war,
to still all conflict.
~Sanwal Gurmani
Come, come all
all neighbors and children
come and gather in the streets
or be at your window
or at your door
see Nasrudin on his donkey
see Nasrudin!
see his donkey!
Nasrudin is seated on his donkey!
see Nasrudin and his donkey
the donkey faces one way
and Nasrudin is seated
facing the opposite way!
O Nasrudin, why does donkey
face one way
and you are
seated facing the opposite way?
donkey and I cannot agree
which way we want to go -
and so neither follows the other!
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh, let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Oh, dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the wedding now, oh, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand, touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
~ Leonard Cohen
Intoxicated by the Wine of Love.
From each a mystic silence Love demands.
What do all seek so earnestly? 'Tis Love.
What do they whisper to each other? Love.
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts.
In Love no longer 'thou' and 'I' exist,
For Self has passed away in the Beloved.
Now will I draw aside the veil from Love,
And in the temple of mine inmost soul,
Behold the Friend; Incomparable Love.
He who would know the secret of both worlds,
Will find the secret of them both, is Love.
Farid ud Din Attar - translation Margaret Smith -The Jawhar Al-Dhat
namī-dānam che manzil buud shab jaa.e ki man būdam
ba-har-sū raqs-e-bismil buud shab jaa.e ki man būdam
It was a strange and unknown place, last night, where I was,
All around the place Bismils (half slaughtered) were dancing divinely, last night, where I was.
parī-paikar nigāre sarv-qadde lāla-ruḳhsāre
sarāpā āfat-e-dil buud shab jaa.e ki man būdam
Angelic, slender as a cypress tree and rose faced beings,
Turned into a torment for our heart, last night, where I was.
raqībāñ gosh-bar-āvāz uu dar naaz va man tarsāñ
suḳhan guftan che mushkil buud shab jaa.e ki man būdam
Every rival gave ear to his voice, his pride silenced me and I in my fear,
I found no words to speak, my fear made the conversation
difficult, last night, where I was.
ḳhudā ḳhud mīr-e-majlis buud andar lā-makāñ 'ḳhusrav'
mohammad sham.a-e-mahfil buud shab jaa.e ki man būdam
O Khusrau, I beheld a sacred gathering adorned by God Himself as the gracious Host,
And Muhammad was shining as the radiant flame at its heart, last night, where I was.
marā az ātishe-e-ishq-e-tū dāman soḳht ai 'ḳhusrav'
mohammad sham.a-e-mahfil buud shab jaa.e ki man būdam
O Khusro, the fire of love has turned my cloak to ash,
Mohammad himself gleamed as the luminous flame of the gathering, last night, where I was.
~ AMIR KHUSRAU
A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot
where it’s being boiled.
‘Why are you doing this to me?’
The cook knocks him down with the ladle.
‘Don’t you try to jump out.
You think I’m torturing you.
I’m giving you flavour,
so you can mix with spices and rice
and be the lovely vitality of a human being.
Remember when you drank rain in the garden.
That was for this.’
Grace first. Sexual pleasure,
then a boiling new life begins,
and the Friend has something good to eat.
Eventually the chickpea
will say to the cook,
‘Boil me some more.
Hit me with the skimming spoon.
I can’t do this by myself.
I’m like an elephant that dreams of gardens
back in Hindustan and doesn’t pay attention
to his driver. You’re my cook, my driver,
my way to existence. I love your cooking.’
The cook says,
‘I was once like you,
fresh from the ground. Then I boiled in time,
and boiled in the body, two fierce boilings.
My animal soul grew powerful.
I controlled it with practices,
and boiled some more, and boiled
once beyond that,
and became your teacher.’
~Rumi
when the world
goes mad
be wildly kind
to everyone
everyone
everyone
~ you can’t control
much
but you control how
you treat others
in these breaking news
heartbreaking times
when nothing feels
certain
let your raw kindness
be a certainty
allow your compassion
to become a North Star
stamped up in
the sky for
others to follow
back home
~ John Roedel
I said to the wanting-creature inside me:
What is this river you want to cross?
There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road.
Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or resting?
There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman.
There is no tow rope either, and no one to pull it.
There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford!
And there is no body, and no mind!
Do you believe there is some place that will make the
soul less thirsty?
In that great absence you will find nothing.
Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Think about it carefully!
Don't go off somewhere else!
Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of
imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.
~Kabir