Cupbearer, pour the wine! Let it flow and keep flowing!
I am sick of swinging between hope and fear.
Shatter thought, I want nothing to do with it!
Tear from heart all unstable imaginings!
Hack from their chains the shameless joys of passion!
Dance into our assembly Beloved, unveil Your Face,
Scatter graces with each swirl of Your rob of flame.
Look at these madmen dancing out of themselves for You:
See how they’ve stripped themselves of the rags of time!
Even to detachment the heart can be attached, God knows,
For the heart is a net spread for misery.
Transform my heart to a placeless place of safety,
Carry it to the mountains where it dies into You.
Come quickly! My body’s tired of this country;
Make it drunk, set it free, call to it, “Come quickly!”
Offer me a cup overflowing with the wine of wonder
So I can no longer tell my head from my feet.
don’t give me bread, or water, or peace, or sleep;
Thirst for You is blood-money for a hundred souls like mine.
Today, my Beloved, you have swept me to Your table
Let me stammer and stagger at the Glory of Your Feast.
News has raced through the city: Today’s the Day of Joy!
You are an ass if you want anything but God,
A sad and crazy ass trying to get fat on ash;
Know that the grass of ash dirties the mouth that eats it.
Remember, always, what Mohammed said:
“Stay away from the green of filthy places!”
Beloved, I am far from the grass of the ashpits
I am far from the houris of the gardens
I am far from pride, far from vanity;
I am drunk on the wine of the Divine Majesty.
The thought of a final Beauty leaps like a deer in my heart
Like the moon racing up the sky, like a lily
Lifting its head suddenly from the rive grass.
“Resignation is the key to happiness,
Grace is the door to the peace beyond the mind.” — Rumi