Another gem from al-Andalus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRGlzIhWgAY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GV6P3YSvrY Translation (of the most common version, in Arabic below): When she began to sway my Love’s beauty entranced me With a glance, she captured me the branch bends when it sways O my promise, O my wonder, None can console my complaint of love and…
Sidi Qaddur al-‘Alami: Qasida-Pleading | سيدي عبد القادر العلمي : قصيدة التوسل
Muwwál Modo Zerga -Casida _El Perdón Translation: Mine is not the power, nor the effort, nor the strength Neither mastery of fate nor any chance is mine From me, the request alone, from him, the acceptance And in this matter, there’s no turning back The one who commands me to be patient and to…
The Virgin Birth
Rumi The body is like Mary. Each of us has a Jesus, but so long as no pain appears, our Jesus is not born. If pain never comes, our Jesus goes back to his place of origin on the same secret path he had come, and we remain behind, deprived and without a share…
My heart became…
This amazing poem of Ibn ‘Arabi’s is often interpreted somewhat sentimentally, but the love he writes of is far more than mere sentiment, and the universalism he espouses is much more than mere coexistence. Among other things, it refers to a profound spiritual transformation in which opposites unite and the limitations of particular existence are…
Two ghazals of Hafez
No one has seen your face, and yet Thousands of rivals seek you; You’re still a bud and yet a hundred Nightingales entreat you. However far I am from you (May no one know that place!) I cannot help but hope that soon I’ll be in your embrace; And it’s not strange that…
Along the path…
The love of her beauty is a sea of fire. If you’re a lover you’ll burn; such is the path. Where a bright candle’s flame suddenly heaves won’t the moth burn? Its burning is certain. If you want love’s secret, leave faith and disbelief. What room is…
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips, bidding adieu
Hafez Come tell me what it is that I have gained From loving you, Apart from losing all the faith I had And knowledge too? Though longing for you scatters on the wind All my life’s work Still, by the dust on your dear feet, I have kept faith with you And even…
Zen and the snowman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJI5gaWuf6w&nohtml5=False At the peak of my soul’s depths I sit in silent reverie The sun above, weather below The vast blue breathes in, out of me The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens One must have a mind of winter To regard the frost and the boughs Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been…
Camaron and Hafez: Love’s Minstrels
Translation of Lyrics: Strumming the strings of his guitar, Strumming the strings of his guitar, A Sultan complained of his Queen. Two wells of stars, your black eyes, And a moonless rose, your black hair, Your black hair, your black hair, Two wells of stars, your black eyes. The rosemary bush smells of your body,…
Love, in Old English Verse
To Celia by Ben Jonson Drink to me, only, with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup, And I’ll not look for wine. The thirst that from the soul doth rise, Doth ask a drink divine: But might I of Jove’s nectar sup, I would not…