I Won’t Leave You in the Middle of the Road (1/8/2023)

I Won’t Leave You in the Middle of the Road (1/8/2023)

I came to grab you by the ear and drag you away.
I came to leave you without a heart, without a self.
I came to put you inside of My heart.

O rose sapling, I came to embrace you like a beautiful spring,
to scatter you here and there and everywhere.

I came to charm you in this palace,
to raise you above the sky like the prayers of lovers.

You have stolen a kiss from a Beauty.
I came to take it back.
Give it to Me nicely.

What is the whole? You are the all.
You are the one who ordered, “Read.”*
Others may not know you, but I do,
because you are Me.

You are My soul. You are My heart.
You are the one who reads Fatiha** for Me.
Turn entirely into Fatiha, and I will read you.

You are my prey, but you have jumped out of the trap.
Return to My trap.
If you don’t, I will drag you there.

A lion said, “What a beautiful gazelle I see.
Why are you following me?
Go away or I will tear you to pieces.”

Just accept your wounds.
Since you are a shield of bravery, walk in front.
Keep your eyes on the bowstring.
I will bend you like a bow.

There are thousands of stages from dust to human.
I have carried you through all of them, stage after stage.
I won’t leave you in the middle of the road.

Don’t talk. Don’t froth.
Don’t try to open the lid of the saucepan.
Keep boiling nicely.
I am cooking you.

Aren’t you a lion’s cub hidden in a gazelle’s body?
I will carry you through that stage, too.

You are my ball, under the control of my club.
I keep making you run,
but I also run after you.

*Read Revelations which came from God to the Prophet Muhammad started with the order, “Read.”
**Fatiha The first chapter of the Koran.

Divan-i Kebir, Volume 21, Ghazal 9, verses 88-100, pages 18-19.

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