A Heart Overflowing with Love: Rumi

I am drunk and you are insane

Tell me, who will lead us home?

How many times have I asked you not to drink so much; I see no sober soul in town.

Come to the tavern my dearest and taste the wine of love; the soul is joyous only in the company of lovers.

The tavern of love is your livelihood

Your income and expenses, the wine.

Be careful not to trust a sober soul

With even one drop of this wine.

Go on plying our lute, my drunken gypsy; but tell me,

of the two of us, who is more drunk?

As I left my house a Sufi approached me,

In his glance I saw a hundred gardens.

He swayed from side to side like a ship without an anchor,

While a hundred reasonable men watched on enviously.

Where are you from? I asked him.

He replied, “Half from Turkistan and half from Farghaneh,

Half from water and clay and half from soul and heart,

Half from the edge of the sea and half from the depths of the ocean.”

Look at me, I am your friend

On the night when you leave the house of your body

I will be with you in the grave.

You will hear my voice and know that

We were never separated.

I am the lucid core of your being

I’ve been by your side in joy and suffering.

On that fateful night you will hear my familiar voice,

See the lit candles and smell the sweet incense.

I will bring you food and wine.

On that night you will hear the blast of the trumpet

That will rip open the shrouds of the dead.

On that night the dust of all ages will be stirred

By the glory of the resurrection.

Do not look for me in human shape, for

The soul is subtle and love is jealous.

There is no haste for form in love.

Last night I gave a star a message for you.

On my knees I begged her to tell you

How much I pray that you will turn my stony heart

golden with your radiance.

I bared my chest to show my wounds and asked her to tell you that if I sway this way and that it’s because I need to calm the infant in my heart; babies sleep when rocked in their cradle.

My Beloved, my heart was always yours

Nurse it like a child, save it from wandering.

How long will you keep me in exile?

I will be quiet now, but even in my silence

My heart will long for you in the grave.

One day your heart will take you to your lover.

One day your soul will carry you to the Beloved.

Do not get lost in your pain.

Know that one day

Your pain will become your cure.

I will never leave this house of light,

I will never leave this blessed town

For here I have found my love and with her I will stay

For the rest of my life.

If this world turns into a sea of trouble

I will brave the waves and steer the ship of my mind

To the safe shore of love.

If you are a seeker looking for profit,

Go on and may God be with you,

But I am not willing to exchange my truth;

I have found the heart and will never leave

This house of light.

I said what about my eyes?

“Keep them on the road.”

I said what about my passion?

“Keep it burning.”

I said what about my heart?

“Tell me what you hold inside it.”

I said pain and sorrow.

He said:

“Stay with it.”

When at first love captured my heart

My cries kept the neighbors awake all night.

Now that my love has grown deeper

My cries have quietened.

When the fire takes hold, the smoke disappears.