Your Scent (5/10/2020)
Once I got a tiny whiff of Your scent,
I was forced to go Your way.
My color and scent were stolen by Yours.
I was annihilated in the end, so nothing was left of me,
not even a scent. No scent. Nothing.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #3, page 175.
Who Is It? (5/3/2020)
Who is it that gives taste and charm to color and shape?
When He hides, form becomes like a child of the devil. Continue reading
If I Miss this Opportunity Now (4/5/2020)
My heart appreciates Beauty.
Why should I run away from the Beloved?
The dagger in my hand is a good one.
Why should I turn my face away from battle? Continue reading
A Sign Has Appeared from Love (3/8/2020)
Just now, ruby-colored tears have started seeping from my eyes.
A sign has appeared from Love, yet a trace of Love’s dust never appears. Continue reading
The Sound of the Key (3/1/2020)
I am a mountain. I am echoing the Beloved.
I am a painting. That Beauty is my painter.
Do you think all these words I say belong to me?
No. They are the sound of the key turning in the lock.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 128.
Such a Love (2/23/2020)
I need such a Beloved that my soul will hold His stirrup.
I need such a musician that Venus will die in front of Him. Continue reading
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.
Love Has Arrived (12/22/19)
Love has arrived and become the blood in my skin and veins.
It has emptied me of my self, filling me with the Beloved.
Every part of my body is now occupied by the Beloved.
Only my name has been left to me.
He has become everything else.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #4, page 112.
I Will Keep Silent (12/1/19)
Just now, ruby-colored tears have started coming from my eyes.
A trace of Love’s dust never appears, but a sign has appeared from Love. Continue reading
Both Worlds Are Submerged in Him (11/24/19)
If you want the Beloved to show His face to you, turn inside.
Give up your flesh and walk to the Essence.
He is such an Essence
that He is surrounded by layers of curtains.
He is submerged in His own Being,
and both worlds are submerged in Him.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 1, page 97.
Nothing Except the Beloved (11/10/19)
“As long as I live, I won’t stray from the right way.”
I gave that oath to myself.
But later, I looked to my right, then to my left,
then to my right, then to my left.
Each time, I saw nothing except the Beloved.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 91.
Who Has… (11/3/19)
Who has seen a trace of that charmer?
In whose house is that full moon hidden?
Who has seen without eyes His Beauty?
Who has seen that world beyond this one? Continue reading
The Beloved is Inside of You (9/29/19)
O one who has been deceived by flesh, who doesn’t know His own essence, put your mind in your head.
The Beloved is inside of you.
Senses are the essence of the body. The essence of your senses is your soul.
If you go beyond body, senses and soul, everything is the Beloved.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 71.
The Only Way to Reach Eternity (9/22/19)
Every moment, Your kindness follows after sorrow.
If this were not so, no one could stand this suffering.
Make me constantly drunk with the wine which gives no hangover.
I don’t want any other wine. Continue reading
Not for Everyone (9/15/19)
Not everyone looks for You.
Nor do You ask that everyone does.
Not every mill wheel turns by the water coming from Your river.
Drawing a strong, tight bow is not for everyone.
For that, one has to be a hero.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #2, page 77.
Don’t Open the Door of Thought (8/18/19)
Like every other day, we are desperately in Love today.
Don’t open the door of thought.
Play the rebab whose sound makes us forget everything.
There are a hundred different prayers
for the one whose alter is the face of the Beloved.
Rubailer (2016), Rubia #4, page 46.
My Religion (8/11/19)
Absence in Nothingness is my religion.
Annihilation from existence is what I worship.
I run towards the side of the Beloved with my feet,
but the green horse of the firmament is under my saddle.
In one breath, I leave hundreds of planets behind me.
Then, I turn back and see
that that was only one step of mine.
Why should I circle around the Earth?
The Beloved is inside of my sweet soul.
Shams of Tebriz, whom all saints praise,
has teeth which resemble sieen.*
They are my Ya Sin.**
*sieen A letter of the Arabic alphabet.
**Ya Sin The title of the sura (section) of the Quran (which has 114 suras). Quran XXXVI.
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 9, Ghazal 25, verses 258-262, page 41.
I am Absent (8/4/19)
He is inside and outside of my heart.
He is the soul of my body.
He is my blood and my veins.
How could faith or heresy fit here?
I am absent. He is all of my existence.
Rubailer (2016), page 68, Rubai #4
You are the Antidote…You are the Bait (7/28/19)
What is life without You?
Life without You is forbidden.
Living without Your beautiful face is nothing but death,
that thing which was given the name, “life.” Continue reading
Stay for Awhile (7/14/19)
A sugar buyer comes, saying,
“A caravan has arrived from Egypt.”
Hundreds of camels come loaded with sugar cane.
O my God, what a beautiful gift. Continue reading
First, He pampered me with a thousand favors.
Then, He burned me with a thousand troubles.
He played with me as if I was nothing more than dice in His game of Love.
But, when I died from myself and became Him, He finally threw me out.
Rubailar (2016), Rubai #3, page 31.
The Waves Become Exuberant (3/10/19)
Our heart feels good today,
because You drank its blood yesterday.
May it do You good. Continue reading
Slave and Servant (2/3/19)
I am drunk with the wine that Love has engraved on His glass.
I ride a horse. Its reins are Love.
Falling in Love with my moon-faced Beloved is great,
but I am a slave and servant to the One who made Love a slave-servant to Him.
Rubailar (2016), Page 108, Rubai #3
Come to the Source of Your Source (12/30/18)
How long will you be going backwards?
Come forward. Don’t stay with heresy. It is time to come to faith.
See poison as sherbet. Grab the poison.
At last, come to the Source of your source.
********
You are on the Earth as a form.
But, you are the threat of the pearl of certainty.
You have become the custodian of the storage of God’s grace.
At last, come to the Source of your source.
********
If you give yourself to ecstasy,
it is certain that you will be saved from yourself.
You have jumped out of the bonds of thousands of traps.
At last, come to the Source of your source.
********
You came from the sperm of a prince.
Open your eyes to the truth of this ordinary world.
Pity how joyful you are.
At last, come to the Source of your source.
********
Although you are a spell of the Earth,
You are a mine inside.
Open both your eyes.
At last, come to the Source of your source.
********
You are the son of light and greatness.
You have an auspicious fate and good fortune.
How long will you be crying over illusory things?
At last, come to the Source of your source.
********
You are a ruby, hidden among hard rocks.
How long will you be deceiving us?
O my friend, He appears to your eyes openly.
At last, come to the Source of your source.
********
You come like that,
your beautiful eyes full of fire, drunk,
from the arms of the unruly Beloved,
At last, come to the Source of your source.
********
That cupbearer, Shams of Tebriz, is offering you a glass of the wine of immortality.
It is pure and clear.
“Glory be to God.”
At last, come to the Source of your source.
Divan-i Kebir, Meter 13, Gazel 7, Pages 13-15 Verses 79-96.
If This Were Not So (12/16/18)
Every moment, the Beloved’s kindness follows after sorrow.
If this were not so, no one could stand this suffering. Continue reading
No One Is a Stranger There (11/18/18)
Every mind becomes confused when it sees Your face.
Every face is scratched by Your Absence.
I have become drunk because of Your reproach.
I don’t even know if Your pure wine is better than a sedimented one. Continue reading
The Dust Raised Up by Words (11/4/18)
Don’t give water to me. I want to be Your thirsty one.
Make me Your lover. Take away my sleep.
O One whose beautiful image has become the Mihrab* for me,
I will keep doing Namaz** every day and night. Continue reading
The Signs of My Beloved (10/28/18)
Every particle of my body shows the signs of my Beloved.
Every part of my body is the expression of Him.
I lean towards Him as a lyre,
my crying song created by His hand.
Rubailer (2016), Page 102, Rubai #3
Crying and Wailing (10/14/18)
I know how easily my Beloved gets tired of me.
Even the thought that I love Him seems to hurt Him a lot.
But, no one can go far on the road to the Beloved with fear and shyness.
If the road I take becomes difficult for walking, I will ride a horse.
Rubailer (2016), Page 299, Rubai #4
Hundreds of Jars of Wine (9/23/18)
Your Love has made me drunk.
I am so drunk and out of myself that I keep clapping my hands.
How could I possibly know what I am doing? Continue reading