98 Let sorrowful longing dwell in your heart,

122 o ne day, this self, and all dear to it,

will be blown around in dust and dirt.
126 the fire of desire for the
Beloved, the Sufi dances in ecstasy,
Nowhere else, in all of creation, this is found."
Your gate,
and no one else's.
197 dark of the early morning, Friend.
All those thirsting after You have their foreheads
203 I traveled paths of knowledge and
 I had no perfumed incense to bring You,
I have brought You these dry sticks.
My boldness in entertaining hopes of forgiveness
and dreams of union
comes from Your royal decree, my Love.
“Despair is disobedience and shows lack of faith.”

210 When the desire for the Friend became real,

all existence fell behind.
The Beloved wasn’t interested in my reasoning,
I threw it away and became silent.
The sanity I had been taught became a bore,
it had to be ushered off.
Insane, silent and in bliss,
I spend my days with my head
at the feet of My Beloved.

211 Those who find me worthy of my name

have no idea of my inner unworthiness.
If I am turned inside out one day,
I would be judged to be burned at the stake

213-14 Since the day I heard of You, my Love,

this confusion, sorrow and pain have never left me.
How foolish I was to think that we were two,
The Lover and the Beloved are never separate.

215 My body and soul come together to seek You,

it is You that I live and die for.
I am here but a fortnight and then,
a handful of dust.
You are here to see this Love through.
when time begins anew!
223 The world to come worries me not,
neither does death.
Why fear a true creditor? What is to fear most
is the worship of this false self.

224 O’ righteous ones,

please blame me not if I drink.
I worship this wine and the Love that goes with it.
When I am sober, I am in the company of intruders,
When I am drunk, I am in my Beloved’s embrace.

226 Of all my infinite pains,

and worse than this incessant burning in the chest,
is the fact that You are sitting inside my very eye,
and I cannot see You.

229 to my Beloved, the owner of all treasures.

230 Ups and downs in my life

are nothing but messengers from You.
Joy and sorrow remind me of You
only. I am so used to Your Presence,
Beloved, Your absence is nothing but a
reminder of the coming togetherness.
 231 I am full of sorrow at Your gate.
But I know the court of a generous King
such as You, my Beloved,
no one leaves wanting.
I will be here therefore, my Love,
until all my sorrows are
sweet with anticipation and hope.

233 My Beloved,
giver of all needs, and their satisfier too,
pray see to it that I need none but You, and
knock on no door but Yours.

234 Again I hear this song,

and it smells of the wine we speak of.
This is Your Sacred Secret, Beloved,
declared in my heart, every moment.

237 this heart dances to Your Will.

 252 You may bridge the shores of the galaxy.
You may stop the creation from turning around
its center.
You may be able to control the snake and the scorpion
but you will never be able to stop people from rendering
judgments on you.

253 Love is not something one can talk about, this gem no
diamond can cut.
All we say and do are naught but speculations. Love
comes undetected and leaves undefined.

254 This world and our life in it is worth nothing. We are

nothing and so are our joys and sorrows. Is it smart to
fuss over nothing?

255 Reject faces and places,

blowout the candle of your countless desires for a
moment.
I’ll let you taste a drop of the
Ocean I am drowned in,
and you will live the rest of your days in bliss.

257 Cling to your poverty and refuse kingdoms.

Enter the dragon’s mouth,
but seek not wealth here.
it in the silent solitude of the inner cell of your being
and dream not of palaces.
 283 One barters this life for public approval and position
to become a self-righteous, pretentious fool.
Another seeks traces of Your steps in his solitude
treading on the back of the dragon of lunacy.
You will spare none, my Beloved,
one will be slain by Your disdainful absence
the other by Your all consuming Love Gaze.

284 You were pointed out the Beloved’s mansion

and were shown the way.
You were told to clean your heart.
Colorful robes and turbans
are heavy loads on this road.

286 Without Your Name on my lips and Your Warmth

in my heart, whatever I have done and wherever I
have been, I regret!
I vow not to take vows again since in Your Presence
I have broken
a hundred vows and repented
a thousand times!

287-88 To your mind feed understanding,

to your heart, tolerance and compassion.
The simpler your life, the more meaningful.
The less you desire of the world,
the more room you will have in it
to fill with the Beloved.
them all like You treat me!
297 I am the one You created from dust,
a handful of dust moving at Your wish.
You planted this seed,
this growth is obeying that command.

298 Who am I?
One with a fire burning within.
One with all hopes severed,
hoping to gain the steadfastness of a rock
and the sincerity of the flame.
Perhaps then I will deserve
to sit at the feet of the Purified One.

299 Who am I?
One fed up with his self,
at war with sanity.
One who burnt with jealousy last night
hearing the true lamentations of a truly
broken one at the Beloved’s gate.

300 O’ Creator of All the Limited,

Limitless One.
How long will You have this
derelict treading endless roads?
Pray, either remove all hope out of
this heart,
or grant the wish You placed in it.
 needless of anyone's praise,
unafraid of their blame.
Now poverty and contentment are my companions.
Friends, family and my own self
have abandoned me.
But this station You only honor Your Loved Ones with.
What service this unworthy one had rendered to
be exalted so?

309 You create these turning worlds, these springs and

winters. You too send the righteous ones
to the bowels of the earth while letting the beastly ones
steal crowns and thrones.

311 Do you know why the rooster

spreads his loud lamentations every dawn?
To let the living know
that another night has faded
into the mirror of morning light
and we haven't gotten
any closer to deserving the name human being.

313 Suppose you can recite a thousand holy

verses from memory.
What are you going to do
with your ego self, the true
mark of the heretic?
Every time your head touches
the ground in prayers, remember,
this was to teach you to
 318 Friend I would throw this heart away
but it has Your fire brand on it.
Both eyes I would stitch shut if
You weren’t sitting in them.
My whole being is nothing but Your abode,
or I would use it as incense
at Your door.

319 Though You are at the other end

of the world, if I am in Your
Heart, then we are together.
Though You sit next to me, if I
am not in Your Heart, You are
at the other end of the world.
Being together means not knowing
that space where I end and You begin.
where it becomes the same whether I
am You, or You are me.

321 If you keep seeking the jewel of understanding,

then you are a mine of understanding in the making.
If you live to reach the Essence one day,
then your life itself is an expression of the Essence.
Know that in the final analysis you are that
which you search for

322-23 You are that Invisible Knower

who knows the secret pain of the lover.
Why should I worry about telling
You what I feel for You?
You know it a thousand times
better than I could ever express.
Footnotes

* The numbers assigned to these poems refer to numbers

used in the original Farsi version, Arefaneha. See
bibliography.

* "There is no god, but God." Quran, Arabic.

* Darvish: one who has renounced; a fakir.

* caravanserai: a place of rest, an inn.