Category: Gazel (longer poem)

Make Sure You Learn This Sign (2/9/2020)

Posted on by Millicent
Make Sure You Learn This Sign (2/9/2020)

Something is striking like lightning.

I wonder if that is my heart captivating the Beloved.

What is shining from that corner?

Is that the ruby mine?

 

What is around that pearl?

Is it the Moon or a star?

It is suspended like a lamp made of divine light.

 

I wonder. Is it soul’s lamp or perhaps a sacred, bejeweled flag?

Could it be that candle which has no end to its light?

 

O heart, raise your head. Your eyes are sharp.

Rub your eyes and look carefully.

He is all that you can see.

 

When you can scatter pearls from Him,

no one will be able to see a trace of you.

Make sure you learn this sign.

It should be a symbol between us.

 

When you see His blaze and brightness,

go under His wing and be annihilated,

because the valuable egg also stays under the chicken.

 

When we come forward, He disappears.

But, if we stay away, He appears.

 

He stands, moves and appears.

But, He doesn’t stand, move or appear in place or time.

He is totally timeless and spaceless.

 

When you move water,

His light, which is reflected on the water, also moves.

That is the way you can see Him.

But, He is in the sky.

 

He is not this, not that.

He is the goodness of religion and God.

If you still dare to say He is someone else,

go ahead and say it.

Divan-i Kebir, Volume 15, Ghazal 29, verses 353-362, pages 69-70.

O Heart, Be Brave (1/26/2020)

Posted on by Millicent
O Heart, Be Brave (j1/26/2020)

He is such a Beauty that He teaches endearing behaviors

to the Moon and Venus all night long.

Both of His eyes cover the eyes of the sky with magic.

 

O religious ones, save your hearts,

because I have merged so much with Him

that my heart cannot join me to anyone anymore.

 

First, I was born from Love.

Then, I gave my heart to Him,

just like the fruit that comes from the branch.

In the end, it hangs onto that branch.

 

I am running away from my shadow,

because it is hiding the light.

How could someone who runs away from his own shadow be settled?

 

His hair says, “Where is that acrobat who plays with rope?

Have him come back soon.”

His face, which resembles a candle, says,

“Where is the moth? Have it come and burn itself.”

 

O heart, be brave in the game.

Submit yourself.

When His candle flares up, throw yourself into it.

 

Once you feel the pleasure of His burning,

you will not be able to get enough of it.

Even the fountain of life

will not be able to separate you from that fire.

Divan-i Kebir, Volume 15, Ghazal #28, verses 346-352, pages 67-68.

How Lucky (1/12/20)

Posted on by Millicent
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.