Tonight I can write the saddest lines...by Pablo Neruda

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example,'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voide. Her bright body. Her inifinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my sould is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

~ Pablo Neruda

My soul is a mirror...by Rumi

My soul is a mirror that reveals secrets,
I may not speak about them but
cannot deny knowing.

I run away from body and soul
where I belong, I swear, I do not know,
Seeker, if you want to know the secret,
first you must die to your self.

You may see me but do not think I am here
I have vanished into my Beloved
graced by the essence of love.

My arched back is the bow and my words,
the unbending arrows aimed at Truth.

My tears are testimony of my devotion to Beloved
and from those tears white lilies will grow
that will speak the Truth.

~ Rumi
Rumi: Hidden Music, translated by Azima Melita Kolin & Maryam Mafi

O nightingale.....by Sadi

O nightingale--
Learn love's way
from the moth.

That burnt one
passed away,
but didn't
utter a sound.

These pretenders
are deluded
in seeking him.

Those who came
to know the Friend
never sent back
any news.

~ Sa'di

There is a candle in your heart....by Rumi

There is a candle in your heart,
ready to be kindled.
There is a void in your soul,
ready to be filled.

You feel it, don’t you?
You feel the separation
from the Beloved.
Invite Him to fill you up,
embrace the fire.

Remind those who tell you otherwise, that
Love ..
comes to you of its own accord,
and the yearning for it
cannot be learned in any school.

~ Rumi

Boat of dreams...by Rabindranath Tagore

Day by day I float my paper boats one by one down the running
stream.

In big black letters I write my name on them and the name of the
village where I live.

I hope that someone in some strange land will find them and know
who I am.

I load my little boats with shiuli flowers from our
garden, and hope that these blooms of the dawn will be carried
safely to land in the night.

I launch my paper boats and look up into the sky and see the
little clouds setting their white bulging sails.

I know not what playmate of mine in the sky sends them down the
air to race with my boats!

When night comes I bury my face in my arms and dream that my
paper boats float on and on under the midnight stars.

The fairies of sleep are sailing in them, and the lading is their
baskets full of dreams.

~ Rabindranath Tagore

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken...by Rilke

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.

May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Forever You're mine....! by Rumi

With Your sweet Soul, this soul of mine
has merged as water does with wine.
Who can part the water from the wine,
or me from You when we combine?

You have become my greater self;
how can smallness limit me?
You've taken on my being,
how shall I not take on Yours?

Forever, You have claimed me
that forever I may know You're mine.

Your love has pierced me to the depths,
its ecstasy entwines both bone and nerve.

I rest as a reed flute laid upon Your lips;
as an ancestor of the flute I lie against your breast.
Breathe deeply in me that I may sigh;
Strike upon my strings and tears glisten.


Sweet are my tears and sweet my sighs;
worldly joys I return to the world.
You remain in my inmost Soul
whose depths the mirrored heavens reflect.

O pearl in this mussel shell:
O diamond in my darkest mine!
In You, this honey is dissolved,
O milk of life, so mild, so fine!

Our sweetnesses, all merged in You,
sweeten infant smiles.
You crush me into rose oil, drop by drop;
nor do I complain beneath the press.

In Your sweet pain, pain dissolves,
for I, Your rose, had this intent.
You bade me blossom on Your robe,
and made me for all eyes Your sign.

And when You pour me upon this world,
it blooms in Beauty, fully Divine.

~ Rumi

~Trans. Helminski with Hastie

A BABY PIGEON by Jelaluddin Rumi

A baby pigeon stands on the edge of a nest all day

Then hears a whistle, “Come to me.”

How could he not fly toward that?

Wings tear through the body’s robe

when the letter arrives that says,

“You’ve flapped and fluttered

against limits long enough.

You’ve been a bird without wings

in a house without doors or windows.

Compassion builds a door. Restlessness cuts a key.

Step off proudly into sunlight, not looking back.

Take sips of this pure wine being poured.

Don’t mind that you’ve been given a dirty cup.”

~ Rumi

My only refuge....By Mirabai

That dark Dweller in Braj Is
my only refuge.

O my companion,
Worldly comfort is an illusion,
As soon you get it, it goes.

I have chosen the Indestructible for my refuge,
Him whom the snake of death
Will not devour.

My Beloved dwells in my heart,
I have actually seen that Abode of Joy.
Mira's Lord is Hari, the Indestructible.

My Lord, I have taken refuge with Thee;
Thy slave.

~ Mirabai

Your hope in my heart...by Rabia

Your hope in my heart is
the rarest treasure
Your Name on my tongue is
the sweetest word

My choicest hours
Are the hours
I spend with You --

O Beloved, I can't live in this world
Without remembering You--
How can I endure the next world
Without seeing Your face?

I am a stranger in Your country
And lonely among Your worshippers:
This is the substance of my complaint.

~ Rabia

You I choose...by Rumi

You I choose, of all the world, alone;
Will you suffer me to sit in grief? 

My heart is as a pen in your hand,
You are the cause if I am glad or melancholy. 

Save what you will, what will have I?
Save what you show, what do I see?
You make grow out of me now a thorn and now a rose;
Now I smell roses and now pull thorns. 

If you keep me that, that I am;
If you would have me this, I am this. 

In the vessel where you give color to the soul
Who am I, what is my love and hate?
You were first, and last you shall be;
Make my last better than my first. 

When you are hidden, I am of the infidels;
When you are manifest, I am of the faithful.
I have nothing, except you have bestowed it;
What do you seek from my bosom and sleeve?

~ Rumi

My Beloved...! by Rabia

Would you come if someone called you
by the wrong name?

I wept,
because for years He did not enter my arms;
then one night I was told a
secret:

Perhaps the name you call God is
not really His, maybe
it is just an
alias.

I thought about it,
and came up with a pet name
for my Beloved I never mention to others.

All I can say is-
it works.

~ Rabia

I am so drunk.....by Jami

I am so drunk that wine drips from my eyes
My heart so burns that I can smell its roasting

If my beloved comes unveilled at midnight
An ageing puritan will rush out of the mosque

I saw your face at Dawn and missed my prayer
What use is supplication when the sun has risen?

If a drop of Jami’s pain falls in the river
The fish will jump out burning with pain

~ Jami

I am afraid.....By Hafiz

I am afraid that my tears
might tear away the veil of my grief…
that this hidden secret
might become the world’s fable.

They say that a stone becomes a ruby
when it attains the stage of Patience.
Certainly it does! – 
but only with blood !


I will go to the Tavern, lamenting -
demanding justice,
because Over there,
I can be freed from this empire of grief .

I have shot
the arrows of my prayer every direction,
one of them might be successful.

~ HAFIZ

Lover of my Heart..!by Rabia Basri

“I set up house for You in my heart

As a Friend that I could talk with.

Gave my body to someone else

Who wanted to embrace it.

This body, all in all, 

is good enough for embracing –

But the Friend who lives in my house

Is the lover of my Heart.”

~ Rabia Basri

The Lover of my Heart..! by Rabia Basri

“I set up house for You in my heart
As a Friend that I could talk with.

Gave my body to someone else
Who wanted to embrace it.

This body, all in all,
is good enough for embracing –

But the Friend who lives in my house
Is the lover of my Heart.”

~ Rabia Basri

O nightingale..........! by Rumi

O nightingale, 
with your voice of dark honey!
Go on lamenting!

Only your drunken ecstasy
can pierce the rock's hard heart!

Surrender yourself,
and if you cannot be welcomes by the Friend,
Know that you are rebelling inwardly like a thread
That doesn't want to go through the needle's eye!

The awakened heart is a lamp;
protect it by the him of your robe!

Hurry and get out of this wind,
for the weather is bad.

And when you've left this storm,
you will come to a fountain;
You'll find a Friend there
who will always nourish your soul.

And with your soul always green,
you'll grow into a tall tree
Flowering always with sweet light-fruit,
whose growth is interior.

~ Rumi

Why not move into your house of joy....by Rumi

If you knew yourself for even one moment,
if you could just glimpse 
your most beautiful face,
maybe you wouldn't slumber so deeply 
in that house of clay.

Why not move into your house of joy
and shine into every crevice!
For you are the secret 
Treasure-bearer,
and always have been.

Didn't you know?

~ Rumi
RUMI: Move Into Your House of Joy

you Who Never Arrived.....! by Rainer Maria Rilke

You who never arrived
in my arms,
Beloved, who were lost
from the start, I don't even know what songs
would please you.
I have given up trying
to recognize you in the surging wave of
the next moment.

All the immense
images in me -- the far-off, deeply-felt
landscape, cities, towers, and bridges,
and unsuspected turns in the path,
and those powerful lands that were once
pulsing with the life of the gods--
all rise within me to mean
you, who forever elude me.

You, Beloved, who are all
the gardens I have ever gazed at,
longing. An open window
in a country house-- , and you almost
stepped out, pensive, to meet me.

Streets that I chanced upon,--
you had just walked down them and vanished.
And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors
were still dizzy with your presence and,
startled, gave back my too-sudden image.

Who knows? Perhaps the same
bird echoed through both of us
yesterday, separate, in the evening...

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Listen, can you hear it? by Rabindranath Tagore

Listen, can you hear it?
His bamboo flute speaks
the pure language of love.

The moon enlightens the trees,
the path, the sinuous Yamuna.
Oblivious of the jasmine’s scent

I stagger around,
disheveled heart bereft of modesty,
eyes wet with nerves and delight.

Tell me, dear friend, say it aloud:
is he not my own Dark Lord Syama?
Is it not my name his flute pours
into the empty evening?

For eons I longed for God,
I yearned to know him.
That’s why he has come to me now,
deep emerald Lord of my breath.

O Syama, whenever your faraway flute thrills
through the dark, I say your name,
only your name, and will my body to dissolve
in the luminous Yamuna.

Go to her, Lord, go now.
What’s stopping you?
The earth drowns in sleep.
Let’s go. I’ll walk with you.

~ Rabindranath Tagore
(From The Lover of God)
{expresses Radha’s point of view and then her friend’s voice closes the poem}
Tagore's earliest poems--an erotic sequence between Lord Krisha and his young lover Radha.

Who are You...! by Rabindranath Tagore

Who are You, who keeps my heart awake?
Every moment is lit by You, so that I feel
no longer separate from You.

Whose flute is playing sweet and bitter
songs of love? It starts the cuckoos singing,
and calls the nectar-heavy bees of my desire.

A young wife could be blooming
in the season of honey, watching the moon,
and be stolen in a moment.

Touch Radha, Whoever You are. She shivers
at Your feet, risking everything to bear
love's searing fire. Master, is that not You?

She's grown reckless with her soul.
Her fear is gone, her hesitation. Who are You?
She'll weep at Your lotus feet until she knows.

~  Rabindranath Tagore
(from the Lover of God)

Alone, all alone....by Maya Angelou

Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone

~ Maya Angelou

Come back...by Hafiz

Where have you taken your sweet song?
Come back and play me a tune.

I never really cared for the things of this world.
It was the glow of your presence
that filled it with beauty.

~ Hafiz

That Moon....by Rumi

That moon which the sky never saw
even in dreams
has risen again

bringing a fire
that no water can drown

See here where the body
has its house
and see here my soul

the cup of love has made the one
drunk
and the other a ruin

When the tavern keeper
became my heart's companion

love turned my blood
to wine
and my heart burned on a spit

When the eye is full of him
a voice resounds

Oh cup
be praised
oh wine be proud

Suddenly when my heart saw
the ocean of love

it leapt away from me calling
Look for me

The face of Love
the glory of Beloved
is the sun that hearts follow
like clouds..!

~ Rumi

Lost in myself...! by Attar

Lost in myself
I reappeared..

I know not where
a drop that rose
from the sea and fell
and dissolved again;

a shadow
that stretched itself out
at dawn,
when the sun
reached noon
I disappeared.

I have no news
of my coming
or passing away--
the whole thing
happened quicker
than a breath;

ask no questions
of the moth.
In the candle flame
of his face
I have forgotten
all the answers.

In the way of love
there must be knowledge
and ignorance
so I have become
both a dullard
and a sage;

one must be
an eye and yet
not see
so I am blind
and yet I still
perceive,

Dust
be on my head
if I can say
where I
in bewilderment
have wandered:

Attar
watched his heart
transcend both worlds
and under its shadow
now is gone mad
with love.

~ Attar