We are beyond words...by Rumi

On the Night of Creation I was awake,
Busy at work while everyone slept.

I was there to see the first wink
and hear the first tale told.

I was the first one caught
in the hair of the Great Imposter.

Whirling around the still-point of esctasy
I spun like the wheel of heaven.

How can I describe this to you?
you were born later.

I was a companion of that Ancient Lover;
Like a bowl with a broken rim
I endured his tyranny.

Why shouldn't I be as lustrous as the King's cup?
I have lived in the room of treasures.

Why shouldn't this bubble become the sea?
I am the secret that lies at its bottom . . .

Sh . . . no more words
Hear only the voice within.

Remember,
the first thing He said was:
"We are beyond words."

~ Rumi
Ghazal (Ode) 1529
Interpretive version by Jonathan Star
(in cooperation with the translator Shahram Shiva)
"A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi"
Bantam Books, 1992
Art by DENNIS POTOKAR