Rumi: Poems
Translated by: Manavaz Alexandrian


har lahze vahiye az aseman ayad be sar janha
Every moment a revelation does fall,
Descending upon souls from the heaven;
Come up, till when like dregs to stall?
Till when linger in the earth? till when?

Whoever is heavy of soul shall descend,
In the end he will sink like dregs to the base;
That wine shall soar to the cask's surface
Which is clear of dregs in pureness.

Stir not the mud, stir it not,
Till the water is clear of the stain;
Till your dregs are revealed,
Till your wound is healed of pain.

It is a soul like the torch alight
But the smoke is thicker than the radiance;
When the smoke swells beyond expanse
It won't show the house's brilliance.

Should you look into the muddy water,
You will see neither moon nor sun,
The sun and the moon are hidden
When darkness spreads in the heaven.

A northern breeze now blows,
Which purges and clarifies the air;
For the sake of this polishing at dawn
Zephyr breathes into the rose bower.

The breath issuing from the breast
Drives away from the breast the gloom;
Let a moment the breathing cease;
And it will bring death and doom.

The soul, a stranger to the earthly recess,
Yearns to return to the placeless;
Why does the soul continues to yearn
to graze like animal which is base?

O goodly spirit! O pure essence!
How long must you wander and hustle?
You are the king's falcon; hence,
Fly back to the king's whistle.


aey asheghan aey asheqan amad gahe vasl o lagha
O lovers! O lovers,
It is time of joining,
Heaven proclaimed,
"Moon-faced ones, welcome to the ring!"

Merry hearts, merry hearts,
Joy has come dancing,
We have seized its chain,
It seized our skirts prancing.

The fiery wine has come,
Demon sorrow sulks aside;
Death-anxious soul depart,
Immortal Saki come to our side.

Seven vaults drunk in love with you,
In your hand we resemble the bead;
Our existence we owe to you,
Hurrah a thousand times, hurrah indeed!

Sweet minstrel, ring the bell,
Shake every while, stir!
Saddle your horse, saddle,
Blow on our shoulder the zephyr.

O sweet sounding reed,
Your notes are sweet as candy;
Day and night your notes
Brings the scent of fidelity.

Start the melody again,
Play the sweet notes again;
O fair as refulgent sun,
Be coy to the lovely train.

Rend not the veil, rend not,
Drain the silent one's bowl, be soundless!
Be a veiler, be a veiler,
Accustom yourself to God's grace.


agar to ashegh eshghi va eshgh ra jooya
If you are a lover of love
And seek love and the mistress,
Take a sharp dagger
And cut the throat of shyness.

Know that there is a great hindrance
In this reputed chart;
What I say is void of malice,
Receive it with a pure heart.

Why did that madman play
Foolery in thousand modes?
A thousand pranks he showed
That crazy soul and odds.

Now he rent his robe,
Now to the mountain he fled;
Now he sipped poison,
Now he sought downright death.

The lover's way is all
Humbleness and drunkenness;
For the torrent runs down,
How upwards shall it pace?

Even as this earth
Is slave to the sky,
Even as the soul
Is body's slave and awry,

Say what does the earth loose
By swaying the revolving sphere?
What kindness reason does
From body organs spare?

Beat not the drum
Beneath the quilt, O son!
Raise your banner high
And stand bold in the open.

Hear with the soul's ear
The lovers' grievous cry,
And beneath the vaulted dome
A thousand wailing descry.

When the strings of your robe is loose
From love and intoxication;
Behold heaven's tumultuous uproar
And Orion's wonder and agitation.

What alarm has seized
The world high and low,
It is from purified love
From above and below.

When the sun rises,
How the night shall remain?
When joy's bounty arrives,
How shall lag the pain?

I am silent; speak you,
O soul of the soul; relate,
For from desire of your face
Atoms are articulate.


kenari nadarad biyabane ma
Our desert all around
Has no limit or bound,
Our hearts and souls
Are both restless from wound.

World in world has taken
The form's semblance
Say which of these images are
Belongs to us per chance?

When in your path
A severed head you see
Which towards our field
Is rolling in misery;

Ask from it, ask from that head
The secrets of the heart,
That head, that severed head,
Our hidden mysteries shall impart.

What if a bird flying
Would take wing
And carry our Solomon's
Mysterious royal ring?

What shall I say,
What I know of this tale?
It is beyond my power,
Beyond my strength to scale.

How can I speak,
For every moment
Our distress grows bigger
And our vexation and torment.


begoriz, aey mire ajal! az nange ma, az nange ma
Fly messenger of death! fly!
From our vice fly, from our vice fly!
For you can't be harmonious,
To be one with us, to be one with us.

From army's attack well armed
And from its sharp plectrums on the wire,
No string will escape unharmed
From our lyre, from our lyre.

First you will devour the wine,
Then you'll grow drunk and joyous;
Then you'll loose your sense
Then you'll remember us, remember us.

If you desire a cup of this wine,
First be slender as glass, thin as brass,
Shatter yourself on our rock, repine;
When you have thinned to a slender glass.

He who drinks the juice, the wine red,
Will be satiated, he will vegetate;
He who gives up joy, gives up joy,
Will long for us, will long for us.

Against fate Mars, the god of war,
Is weak as woman, can't inflict the dagger;
How the veiled woman will dare
To war with us, to war us?

If you want a sword from the sun,
Build a shield from the full moon;
If you are a Caesar or model of fairness,
You must pierce the rust and darkness.

Be like Isaac, be a martyr in our altar,
Hush up and be silent in our ocean;
Lest your ship breaks and is wrecked
In our mighty river in motion.


aey asheghan, aey asheghan, emrooz mayim o shoma
O lovers! O lovers,
Today we are in the same boat,
We all are in one whirlpool,
We don't know how to stay afloat.

Should the whole world be washed away
By flood and giant waves rise,
The duck will not be afraid,
It is the grieving bird who flies.

We've reddened our face with candy,
Mixed with the wave and sea,
Like the fish in stormy sea
Who finds abundance in the lee.

This wind fills a different yearning
Into every head,
I yearn for the Saki,
The rest I leave to others, O mate!

Yesterday the Saki robed the sense.
She stole from the drunken populace;
She feeds us more wine today
To strip off our dress.

O friend! envied by moon and Jupiter,
Yet hidden like the pari,
Gently you carry me away,
Won't you say where you drag me?

Wherever you go you are with me,
You are my two eyes, I say;
Whether you try to make me drunk
Or carry me towards decay.

Look at the world as Mount Sinai,
Like Muses with his burning desire;
Every now and then a light beams,
It breaks the mountain with fire.

Now turning to a green ball,
Now to narcissus or to lily,
Now changing to jewels.
Now to amber and ruby.

You who long to see her,
Look for her in this mount, do!
What wind has blown on you?
We're drunk with the echo!

O gardener! gardener! tell me
Why struggle with us? Why attack?
If we've carried off your grape,
You have taken away our bag.


rostam az in nafas o hava, zendeh bala mordeh bala
Free am I from air and breath,
Both are evils, life and death;
Whether living or dead
God's wisdom is my mansion and shed.

I got rid of this couplet and ode
O God and eternal sovereign!
Spinning and versification
Has killed me from strain.

Tell the flood to carry away
The cursed rime and its dubious way;
It was skin, empty and barren,
Vexing the poet's laboring brain.

O silence! you are my brain;
In my heart you were the sweet strain;
The least benefit of silence mate,
Is absence of hope and dread.

For a village wrecked and upset.
Nor land tax nor migrating fee is levied;
I am sunk, drunken and beset;
What I say could be wrong I bet.

Until he has not destroyed me,
How he can give me treasure?
He who is dry and barren
Won't know the fertile plain.

I'm a mirror, a mirror
I am not a man of letters;
You can observe my mode and manner
If your eye turns to the ears.

I dance like the tree,
I circle like the moon;
My wheel made of dust, my wheel
Is purer of the heavenly wheel.

Sage and orator, speak out, do!
And I will pray for you;
For I become drunk and gay
At mornings when I pray.

My garment and my robe,
I wouldn't grudge you nope!
What I receive from the king
I will share it with you.

I am silent with a soar throat,
Sweet scholar, speak and prate
For your breath is like David's breath


aey havashaye delam, bari bia rooyi benama
O my heart's desire,
Come and show your lovely face;
O both my beginning and end,
Come and show your lovely face.

I'm agitated, I'm restless,
Like your tress, like your tress;
O savior! solve my problem, redress,
Come and show your lovely face.

Speak not of the path and the end,
Speak not, speak not fair mistress;
O you who are both my path and end,
Come and show your lovely face.

You stole a chunk of clay from earth,
It was a pinch of dirt or clay;
I'm stuck in that clay,
Come and show your lovely face.

I am aware of my good and bad,
Am aware of good and ugliness;
Yet I'm ignorant of your beauty,
Come and show your lovely face.

So long my reason fails to burn
For your love, for your love;
I'm ignorant, I'm insane,
Come and show your lovely face.

Proof of the faith and king,
You are both present and absent;
What a surprise? I'm united,
Come and show your lovely face.


ay ke behengame dard rahate jani mara
O you who comfort my soul
In the season of dejection;
O you who are my soul's treasure
In poverty and destitution.

That which neither imagination conceives
Nor understanding can behold;
My soul receives from you;
In worship I turn to your threshold.

By your kindness and grace
To the eternity I stare;
If I am not deceived, O king!
By the temporal world's glare.

Life is the bowl of union
With clear draughts in it;
Without you what the pain
Of vessels to me can transmit?

Through his kindness I am safe
Because I was told, was told;
By the hidden majestic king,
"You are the soul of the world."


marde khoda mast bovad bi sharab
The man of God is drunken without wine;
The man of God is full without meat to dine;
The man of God is bewildered and distressed;
The man of God has no food nor rest;
The man of God is a king in rags dressed;
The man of God is a treasure in the dust;
The man of God is not of earth nor air;
The man of God is not of fire and water;
The man of God is a sea wide and boundless;
Without cloud he rains pearls in the wilderness;
The man of God has hundred moons and skies;
The man of God has hundred sun that flies;
The man of God is wise by truth, look!
The man of God is not learned from book;
The man of God is beyond blasphemy and faith;
To him right and wrong are looked as of one fate;
The man of God rises from nothingness;
The man of God has gained glory and grace;
The man of God is hidden; O Shamsuddin!
You seek the man of God, O Shamsuddin!


har nafas avaz eshgh mirasad as chap va rast
Every while the voice of love
From right or left is coming;
We must go to the heaven,
Who cares for sightseeing?

We have been in heaven,
With angels we have mated;
Thither let us return, O mate!
There from we immigrated.

We are higher even,
And higher than angel in heaven;
Why not cross beyond these two?
Our goal is the Supreme Lod in heaven.

How different is the world of dust
And our exalted and pure gem?
Although we have descended,
Let us haste from where we came.

Young fate is our friend,
To yield the soul is our business;
Our leader is Mohammad,
The world's glory and grace.

The sweet scent of this breeze
From the mistress's curls blows;
The radiance of this thought
From her fair cheek glows.

Men like ducks have sprung
From the sea of the soul;
Risen from the stormy sea,
Why the birds must return like a fool.

Nay, we are pearls in the sea,
Therein we all dwell;
Else why wave follows the wave
From the sea of the soul?

It is time for love's attainment
It is time for lasting fairness;
It is time for favor and bounty,
It is time for pureness.

Whose is this portrait?
Who is this prince, this king?
Who is this ancient wisdom?
They are all veils and covering.

There is naught in the head,
But two heads you have even;
This head is the head of clay,
That is the pure head of heaven.

Many pure heads lie beneath earth,
They have all vanished, fled;
So that you learn that this head
Depends on the other head.

Tie up the skin, cup-bearer,
Take wine from our jar, take;
The cup of perception
Is narrower than the bottleneck.


har naghsh ra ke didi jensesh haz lamakan ast
Every image you see
Is the image of placeless firmament;
If the form perishes no matter
Since the origin is permanent.

Every face you see,
Whatever you hear;
Grieve not when they vanish
For it is not as they appear.

Since the spring-head is eternal
Its branch forever shall flow;
Since neither can cease.
Why do you grieve, fellow?!

Look at the soul as fountain,
And these creations as its streams;
While the fountain flows
The water flows from streams.

Forget your grief and drink water
Flowing from this spring;
Worry not about its survival,
This water is everlasting.

From the moment you entered
Into this world of being;
A ladder was placed
Before you for escaping.

First you were lifeless,
Then you changed into plant;
Then you became animal;
Why is this secret to you or vacant?

Then you were changed into man,
With knowledge, reason and faith;
Behold how rosy is the body
Which from dust has been made.

When you pass the human stage
Surely you'll turn angel, even;
After that, done with earth
Your place will be in the heaven.

Pass the angelic stage again
And enter that ocean man;
So your drop can expand
Hundred times the Sea of Oman.


an rooh ra ke eshgh haghighi shoar nist
That soul that wears
No true love as a dress
Is better to perish away
For its existence is but disgrace.

Be drunk in love, be drunk!
For it is love that is reigning;
Without love in your trunk
You won't find access to the darling.

They say, "What is love?"
Say, "To renounce the will."
He who has not escaped his will
That man has no free will.

The lover is the supreme king,
Both worlds stoop to his feet;
The king pays no attention
To the blessings that lie beneath.

It is love and the lover
That live forever;
Set not your heart on other things,
They are only borrowed gear.

How long you must embrace
The lifeless and inert mistress;
Embrace the real soul
Which nothing can embrace.

In autumn shall perish he
Who is born in spring;
The rose bower of love
Can't receive aid from the spring.

The rose that came in spring
The pointed thorn did embrace;
The wine pressed from the grape
Won't escape crop-sickness.

Do not look expectant
In this path of commotion;
By God no death is as bad
As vain expectation.

Set your heart on ready cash
If you aren't a forger;
Hear my good advice, hear
If no earring you wear.

Dismiss every earthly care
Clear your heart of every stain;
Like the mirror's face
Without image for presentation.

When empty of images, spotless,
All images appear in the surface;
No man is ashamed
Of that clear and pure face.

Should you want a clear mirror
Look into it for truth;
For it is not ashamed
Or afraid to tell the truth.

Since the iron face
Gained purity from clearness;
What needs the heart's face
Which has not dust to deface?

But here is the difference
Between the steel and the heart;
The first will keep the secret,
The other shall impart.


benamay rokh ke bagh o golestanam arezoost
Show your fair face
For I desire your garden of rose;
Open your lips, open it with grace,
For I desire sweets in plenteous dose.

O sun, reveal your face,
Shining and cloudless;
For I desire your radiant
And your glowing face.

For your love I hearkened
To the sound of falcon-drum;
I've returned, for the king's arm
I desire, I have come.

"Vex me no more and go!,"
You said in a tempting lore,
I desire that saying of yours,
"Vex me no more."

That admonition in her recess
Saying, "Began from the house" I desire;
That air, the pride and rudeness
Of the rough doorkeeper I desire.

O sweet breeze that does blow
From the friend's blooming lawn;
Blow on me, for I long
The scent of basil at dawn.

Like Jacob I utter
Shrieks of grief man;
I desire the fair face
Of chaste Joseph of Canaan.

By God, the earth
Is a fortified jail;
In mount and in the dell
I long to roam and wail!

In one hand a cup
In another the lock of my mistress;
In such a form I desire
To dance in the market-place;

My heart is weary
Of a faint-hearted pal;
I desire Ali and Rustam,
I desire the son of Zal.

Filings of beauty is owned by all
Who exist and you can trace;
I desire that fountain
And that mine of loveliness.

Bankrupt though I am,
I refuse cheap agate in the mire;
Mines of rare glowing agate
I desire, I desire.

Of this nagging, grumbling crew
I am fed up, I am tired;
I desire the drunkard's wailing
All ablaze and fired.

My soul is wearied
Of Pharaoh and his tyranny;
With the radiant light
Of Moses' face I would tarry!


be man negar ke tooyi moones man andar goor
Look at me for you are
My companion in the tomb;
On the night when you shall pass
From my shop and my room.

You'll hear my greeting
In the grave, I'll cry;
For never you had been
Hidden from my eye.

I am as reason and wisdom
In your breast, O shadow!
At the time of gladness,
And pain and sorrow.

At the strange night
When you hear the resurrection chant;
You'll escape the serpent's stroke
And the horror of the ant!

Love's intoxication will bring
To your tomb bounty and affluence;
It will bring wine and mistress,
Candle, meat, sweet and incense.

At the hour when they alight
The intellectual lamp;
What a cry of tumult from the dead
Will shake the camp!

Amazed the bleak graveyard
Will open and yawn from dread;
From resurrection's blast
And the pomp of rising dead.

They've torn their winding sheets,
They have shut their ears from fear;
What brain, what sort of ear
Can the blast of the trumpets bear?

Guard to your gaping eye,
Be careful, err not in the zone,
For there the seer and seen
Shall be united and one.

Every side you gaze
You will see my face;
Whether you gaze on yourself
Or at chaos or distress.

Beware lest you mistake me
In human form, O zealous!
For the soul is very subtle
And love is very jealous.

What room is there for form
When the felt is hundred fold?
It is the light of soul's mirror
That reveals the world.

I hold my silence,
I keep outsiders in the dark,
You are all that's a lover,
The secret to me is dark.


che tadbir aey mosalmanan ke man khod ra nemidanam
What must be done O Muslims!
For I don't know myself, I don't know;
I'm neither Christian, nor Guber,
Neither a Muslim, nor a Jew.

I am not from East nor from West,
Nor I am from land or ocean;
I am neither from nature's mine
Nor of heaven is my pedigree.

I'm neither of earth,
Nor water, fire or air;
I am not from heaven,
Nor earth, existence or ether.

Neither from India, nor China
Nor Bulgaria nor Rome;
Neither in Iraq or in Khorasan
I own a permanent home.

I am not of this world, nor of next,
Neither of paradise or hell;
Nor from Adam, nor Eve I descend,
Nor in the Eden I dwell.

My place is placeless,
I am traceless in the whole;
Neither of body or soul I'm,
I belong to the soul of the soul.

I have cast duality aside,
I see the two worlds as one;
One I seek, one I know,
One I see, one I call; one.


andar do koon jana bi to tarab nadidam
In both worlds fair darling
No joy apart from have I seen;
Many wonders I have seen
But not strange like you have I seen.

They say that the blazing fire
Is the infidel's portion;
None save the master of fire
Deprived of you have I seen.

Many times I've listened to the heart
With spiritual ear;
Much discourse I have heard
But no lips have I seen.

Sudden you showered your grace
Upon your poor servant;
Save your infinite kindness
No cause have I seen.

O chosen cupbearer!
Pretty as two fair eyes!
Such as you neither in Persia
Nor Arabia have I seen.

Pour out so much wine until
I can detach myself from me;
For in myself and existence
Only fatigue have I seen.

O you who are milk and sugar,
Nay even sun and moon!
O mother and father,
No king but you have I seen.

O indestructible love!
O divine minstrel!
You are both stay and refuge,
A name such as yours I haven't seen.

Our feet is made of steel
And your love is like magnet;
You're the source of inspiration,
Such a thing in me I haven't seen.

Hush up brother!
Cast learning and culture aside,
Till you name culture
No other culture I have seen.


sooratgare naghasham har lahze boti sazam
I'm a portrayer and painter,
Every moment a new idol I cast;
And then in your presence
I melt them by a single blast.

I call a hundred phantoms
And mingle it with the soul;
When I behold your fair image,
In the fire I cast the whole.

Are you a vintner's cupbearer
Or enemy to the temperate,
Or destroy every house I plan
And the restructure the state?

The soul is dissolved in you,
It was mixed with you;
I shall caress the soul
Since it bears your scent and hue.

I'm one with your kindness,
A partner of your love, O loveliest;
Every drop of blood in me
Thus speaks to your dust:

"In a house of water and clay
This heart is sad without you;
Dearest either enter the house
Or I shall leave I tell you."


hamrange jama'at sho ta lezate jan bini
Adapt yourself to the crowd
To feel spiritual ecstasy;
Come to the tavern's alley
The wine-bibbers to see.

Drain the cup of passion
Not to be ashamed and shy;
Shut up your eyes in your head
To see the hidden eye.

Open your arms,
If your desire an embrace;
Break up the earthen idol
To see the face of the mistress.

Why for an old hag
You must fetch so much dowry?
How long for the sake of bread
To draw the sword and be awry?

The cup-bearer is no tyrant,
They have gathered in her ring;
Come, sit in the circle,
How long you must watch the world's doing?

Here is a bargain;
Give one life, receive a hundred;
Cease to behave like wolf and dog
To be a shepherd's kindred.

Why sleep in the jail,
When so vast earth God is given?
Avoid foul thoughts
To see explanation from heaven.

Cease to speak, bind the word,
To gain the strength to utter;
Abandon life and the world
To see the soul of the creator.


eshgh joz dolat o enayat nist
Love is nothing but abundance and favor
And noblesse of heart and guidance and rapture;
No lecture was given by Hanifeh of this fever,
Nor Shafei's Epistle on love has a chapter.
It is a pending argument till life is ended;
The art of love has no end, nor is expended.
Who is not informed of the elementary;
Become naught of selfhood, become nothing
For there is no sin as worse as being.
Sir, your drunkenness in religious portend
It is the only sign from beginning to the end;
You are astray from the path, from the way,
Else no struggler goes without his pay.
An atom of goodness goes not without prize,
If you aren't blind open your eyes.
Enough, this water has many signs I surmise,
The thirsty man needs no bidding or advice.


be baghe bolbol az in pass hadis ma gooyad
Henceforward to the garden the bulbul shall tell
The story of our infatuation in the dell;
When the wind falls upon the head of willow
And the willow dances shakes like the bow.

God alone knows, God alone is aware,
What things the breeze tells to the air?
The plane tree understands a little
How much the meadow must burn and suffer.

When I question the fair rose
Saying how you stole your beauty?
It lifts its two broad hands joyous
And prays to subtle divinity.

Though the rose is drunk
It is not dissolute like me;
That it should betray to you
The secret of intoxicated lily.

When you want to explore secrets go,
Go among the drunken crew to know;
For the tipsy head shameless
Betrays every secret to the mistress.

Since wine is the daughter of kindness
And the offspring of the line of generous;
It speaks kindly like an open purse
It speaks abundant and with lavishness;

Specially the heavenly wine,
Bestowed by God, the kind and generous;
Lavishly God will speak of kindness;
Generously he will speak of his grace;

That new wine ferments and boils
From the learned Gnostic's belly;
Out of the depth of his body's vat
He invites you to the feast of revelry.


gar jane ashegh dam zanad, atash dar in alam zanad
Should the lover's soul breathe fire,
It will burn the universe entire;
It will upset all this base world
Into small atoms in the fold.

The world will turn to sea from bank to bank,
Terrified the sea will become a blank;
Neither mankind shall survive nor his son
If the lover beat the mortal person.

Such a smoke shall rise from heaven, such disaster,
That neither the world shall remain or the master;
From that dense smoke sudden a fire
Shall rise and fall on the celestial empire.

It will rent the sky to the base,
Neither place shall survive nor placeless;
A tempest will broil the world
Joy will defeat sadness in the fold.

Now the water will be borne by fire,
Now the water will devour the fire;
Now the sea wave of annihilation
Will destroy the checkered habitation.

The sun will loose its influence
From the light of human essence;
Question not the stranger crew
Where strangers are weak and few.

Mercury will loose its virility,
Saturn will burn its book full vanity;
The moon will cease to greatness
Her merriment will be upset by sadness.

Mercury will fall into the mire,
Saturn will be contented by fire;
Venus will have no lyre to play
To cheer the folk with tuneful lay.

Neither the rainbow shall remain
Neither wine nor goblet to drain;
Feasting and joy will end its race,
Neither the wound shall have a dress.

Neither the water shall paint the stage,
Nor the wind shall bear a message;
Neither the garden shall refresh,
Nor the cloud shall wash the surface.

Neither pain shall remain nor cure,
Neither enemy nor a friend to lure;
Neither the reed shall sound a sweet tune,
Not even the harp will bring joy or boon;

The eternal painter will take his pen
And paint the firmament again;
Rare images master painter shall draw
Stripped images on the canvas he will show;

God shall kindle a fire, big in girth,
That will burn every evil on earth;
Fire shall burn the sinful hearts part in parts
And shall will found a new world on the pure heart.


aey ziyan o aey ziayan or aey zian o aey zian!
O fountain of loss, O source of pain;
O fountain of distress and strain;
Vigilant among the drunken throng;
And alert among intoxicated gang.

Boldly give me the cup, O cup-bearer,
Give the goblet all the time and ever!
So that nobody will remain,
Sober in this revolving domain.

The darling bade, the darling did declare,
That you must be mad if you're a lover;
It is chilly to remain sober and cool
Among the madmen and among the fool.

If a sober soul enters your feast and not dizzy,
Shut the door and say you are busy;
And if a lover enters your party,
Take his hand and pull him in hearty.

What is it that finds fault among men
Save the dull and laboring brain?
How can a thirsty soul ever
Find fault in a running river?

Reason will not leave any error,
Reason will find fault and will censor;
March unknown and nameless in this game
So that your name will be free of blame.

Be like Joseph, spotless and true,
If a foolish man tries to enslave you;
Turn into rose garden, inform not the fair
If she doesn't find a thorn in the bower.

Be a Jesus if you don't own a house,
Better to be a Jesus without a house;
Be like eye, if you don't wear a dress,
Remain without dress, avoid it; digress!


rooz ha fekre man in ast va hameye shab sokhanam
In daytime I think and meditate at night
That why I am in darkness, why void of light?
Wherefrom have I come and why have I come?
Where shall I go? O show me my kingdom!
I'm much puzzled of the Omnipotent,
Why did he create me? What was his intent?
Yet I am sure that my soul is from heaven,
I want to return where my souls is given;
I'm bird of paradise, not from the earth,
She lent me my body for a short birth.
Blessed is the day when I shall wing my flight
To join my beloved, the eternal light.
Who listens to me and my prayers hears?
Who puts words in my mouth and for me cares?
Who is in the eye that looks outside the head
Won't you say for what body my shirt was made?
If you won't show the path towards my lasting home,
Feed me the wine of union so in the eternal jail
I will shriek a drunkard's loud shriek and wail;
Willingly I didn't come nor can I leave,
He who brought me will lead to my soil native;
He who brought me will take me to my blessed kingdom;
Deem not that in vain I prate my verse to me,
Or when alert shan't breath a moment in reverie;
Sun of Tabriz, should you show your bright face.