The One Master

"Love is the One who masters all things; 

I am mastered totally by Love. 


By my passion of love for Love 

I have ground sweet as sugar.

O furious Wind, I am only a straw before you;

How could I know where I will be blown next?

Whoever claims to have made a pact with Destiny

Reveals himself a liar and a fool;

What is any of us but a straw in a storm?

How could anyone make a pact with a hurricane?

God is working everywhere his massive Resurrection;

How can we pretend to act on our own?

In the hand of Love I am like a cat in a sack;

Sometimes Love hoists me into the air,

Sometimes Love flings me into the air,

Love swings me round and round His head;

I have no peace, in this world or any other.

The lovers of God have fallen in a furious river;

They have surrendered themselves to Love's commands.

Like mill wheels they turn, day and night, day and night,

Constantly turning and turning, and crying out."

Rumi

Sonnet 29

" When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state 
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate, 
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, 
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, 
With what I most enjoy contented least; 
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state, 
Like to the lark at break of day arising 
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. " Shakespeare

Ghazal 355

Once again, if I find my way to the tavern of the Magi

The goodness of robe and rug I’ll gladly myself deny.

Like the pious, if today I put this wine behind

The keeper of the tavern will keep my cup far and dry.

And if moth-like, I spread my wings with ease

Into the heart of the flame, I’ll gladly fly.

Tell me not of Paradise, as long as I have your thought

With you in my heart, with nothing else identify.

The secret of my love is well kept within my heart

Is only given away with heart’s cry and tearful eye.

Like a bird I took flight from my cage of dust and clay

In the hope of becoming prey to eagles flying high.

Embrace me like a harp in your bosom, pluck my strings

Else a reed upon your lips, put music to your sigh.

I will not tell another the tale of my broken heart;

My love and longing for you, my broken heart will dignify.

No matter how much beauty in Hafiz multiply

For your beauty, everything I will decry, and will die.

Hafiz

Rumi for lovers

"That which God said to the rose,
and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty,
He said to my heart,
and made it a hundred times more beautiful."

"For lovers, the only lecturer is the beauty of the Beloved;
their only book and lecture and lesson is the Face.
They are silent outwardly,
but their penetrating remembrance rises
to the high throne of their Friend.
Their only lesson is enthusiasm, whirling, and trembling,
not the fine points of jurisprudence."



Rumi

A Gift to Bring You

"You've no idea how hard I've looked for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.

What's the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the Ocean.
Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient.

It's no good giving my heart and my soul because you already have these.

So- I've brought you a mirror.

Look at yourself and remember me." RUMI