Scared (1/17/2021)

Scared (1/17/2021)

I have traveled from town to town,

but I haven’t seen any city like the city of Love.

 

At the beginning, I didn’t appreciate the value of that city,

and because of my ignorance, I suffered much in exile.

 

I left that land of sugar cane

and kept eating grasses like an animal in the pasture.

 

Why wasn’t I like the people of Moses, choosing manna?

Why did I prefer leeks and onions?

 

Anything I hear in this world besides the sound of Love

is nothing but the noise of drums.

 

Because of those noisy drums,

I dropped from the universe of wholeness

into the world of the temporary.

 

I was pure soul, just a soul among souls.

I was flying like a heart without wings or feet.

 

Just like a rose, I was drinking that wine

which gives grace and smiles

to the ones without lips and throats.

 

A voice came from Love.

“O soul,” Love said, “get going.

I have created a world of troubles.

Go there.”

 

I begged and begged, saying,

“I don’t want to go! I don’t want to go!

I cried and tore my shirt.

 

I was scared to go.

I was also scared

that I might not want to return.

 

“Go, O soul,” Love said.

“Wherever you are,

I am closer to you than your own carotid artery.”

 

I was persuaded by Love

with all kinds of charms and trickery.

 

Love could move worlds with that charm.

I was nothing. No one could even see me.

 

I was kicked out of there and led down the road.

I may have been saved if I had stayed there.

 

I would tell you how to go there again,

but when I came here to tell you,

Love broke my pencil.

Divan-i Kebir, Volume 18, Ghazal 149, verses 1447-1462, pages 76-78.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *