The Agony and Ecstacy of Divine Discontent: The Moods of Rumi
In the orchard and rose garden
I long to see your face.
In the taste of Sweetness
I long to kiss your lips.
In the shadow of passion
I long for your love.
Oh! Supreme Lover!
Let me leave aside my worries.
The flowers are blooming
With the exultation of your Spirit.
By Allah!
I long to escape the prison of my ego
And lose myself
In the mountains and the desert.
These sad and lonely people tire me.
I long to revel in the drunken frenzy of your love
And feel the strength of Rustam in my hands.
I’m sick of mortal kings.
I long to see your light.
With lamps in hand
The sheikhs and mullahs roam
The dark alleys of these towns
Not finding what they seek.
You are the Essence of the Essence,
The intoxication of Love.
I long to sing your praises
But stand mute
With the agony of wishing in my heart.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bittersweet
In my hallucination
I saw my Beloved’s flower garden
In my vertigo
In my dizziness
In my drunken haze
Whirling and dancing
Like a spinning wheel
I saw myself
As the source of existence
I was there in the beginning
And I was the spirit of love
Now I am sober
There is only the hangover
And the memory of love
And only the sorrow
I yearn for happiness
I ask for help
I want mercy
And my love says
Look at me and hear me
Because I’m here just for that
I am your moon
And your moonlight too
I am your flower garden
And your water too
I have come all this way
Eager for you
Without shoes or shawl
I want you to laugh
To kill all your worries
To love you
To nourish you
Oh Sweet Bitterness!
I will soothe you and heal you
I will bring you roses
I took have been covered with thorns.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Defeated by Love
The sky was lit
By the splendor of the moon
So powerful
I fell to the ground
Your love
Has made me sure
I am ready to forsake
This worldly life
And surrender
To the magnificence
Of your Being
----------------------------------------------------------------
I Am and I Am Not
I’m drenched
In the flood
Which has yet to come
I’m tied up
In the prison
Which has yet to exist
Not having played
The game of chess
I’m already the checkmate
Not having tasted
A single cup of your wine
I’m already drunk
Not having entered
The battlefield
I’m already wounded and slain
I no longer
Know the difference
Between image and reality
Like the shadow
I am
And
I am not
----------------------------------------------------------------
Looking For Love
A strange passion is moving in my head.
My heart has become a bird
Which searches in the sky.
Every part of me goes in different directions.
Is it really so
That the only I love is everywhere?
Looking for Your Face
From the beginning of my life
I have been looking for your face
But today I have seen it
Today I have seen
The charm, the beauty,
The unfathomable grace
Of the face
That I was looking for
Today I have found you
And those who laughed
And scorned me yesterday
Are sorry that they were not looking
As I did
I am bewildered by the magnificence
Of your beauty
And wish to see you
With a hundred eyes
My heart has burned with passion
And has searched forever
For this wondrous beauty
That I now behold
I am ashamed
To call this love human
And afraid of God
To call it divine
Your fragrant breath
Like the morning breeze
Has come to the stillness of the garden
You have breathed new life into me
I have become your sunshine
And also your shadow
My soul is screaming in ecstasy
Every fiber of my being
Is in love with you
Your effulgence
Has lit a fire in my heart
And you have radiant
For me
The earth and sky
My arrow of love
Has arrived at the target
I am in the house of mercy
And my heart
Is a place of prayer
