In the Dark

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.

I would love to kiss you.
The price of kissing is your life.
Now my loving is running toward my life shouting,
What a bargain, let’s buy it.

Daylight, full of small dancing particles
and the one great turning, our souls
are dancing with you, without feet, they dance.
Can you see them when I whisper in your ear?

All day and night, music,
a quiet, bright
reedsong. If it
fades, we fade.

by Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207-1273)

This entry was posted on April 22, 2015 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Poetry with tags Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, Poem, Spring Giddiness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.