Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz (c.1320-1389).
I am
a hole in a flute
that the Christ’ breath moves through-
listen to this
music.
P.153.
Not like
a lone beautiful bird
these poems now rise in great white flocks
startled by God breaking a branch
when His foot touches
earth near
me.
P.155.
(…) Most everyone is lousy at math and does that to God –
dissect the Indivisible One,
by thinking, by saying,
“This is my Beloved, he looks like this and acts like that,
how could that moron over there
really
be
God?”
P.157.
If God
invited you to a party and
said,
“Everyone in the ballroom tonight will
be my special
guest,”
how would you then treat them when you arrived?
Indeed, indeed!
And Hafiz knows that there is no one in
this world who is not standing upon
His jeweled dance
floor.
P.158.
(…) I have come into this world to see this: all creatures hold hands as
we pass through this miraculous existence we share on the way
to even a greater being of soul,
a being of just ecstatic light, forever entwined and at play
with Him. (…)
I have come into the world to experience this:
men so true to love
they would rather die before speaking
an unkind
word,
men so true their lives are His covenant-
the promise of
hope.
I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men’s hands
even at the height of
their arc of
rage.
because we have finally realized
there is just one flesh
we can wound.
P.160.
Power is safest in a poet’s hands, thus for the artist
God will
pose.
The realms of thought sublimely wild, the finest pigments of
ground suns, the violin’s divine plea for a
true friend;
what is all this world has seen from art: the shadow more true and
glorious there
than in the cage where there is often talk of right and wrong.
(…) P.162.
Because the Woman I love lives inside of you,
I lean as close to your body with my words as I can-
and I think of you all the time,
dear pilgrim.
Because the One I love goes with you wherever you go,
Hafiz will always be
near.
If you sat before me, wayfarer, with your aura bright from
your many charms,
my lips could resist rushing to you, but my eyes, my eyes
can no longer hide the wondrous fact of who
you really are.
The Beautiful One who I adore
has pitched His royal tent inside of you,
so I will always lean me heart
as close to your soul
as I can.
P.163.
(…)
If you sat before me, wayfarer, with your aura bright from
your many charms,
my lips could resist rushing to you, but my eyes, my eyes
can no longer hide the wondrous fact of who
you really are.
The Beautiful One whom I adore
has pitched His royal tent inside of you,
so I will always lean my heart
as close to your soul
as I can.
P.163.
Know
the true nature of your
Beloved.
In
His loving eyes
your every thought, word, and movement
is always, always
beautiful.
P.164.
Does God only pucker at certain moments
of one’s life?
No way!
He is the wildest of us
lovers.
P.165.
Look how a mirror
will reflect with perfect equanimity
all actions
before
it.
There is no act in this world
that will ever cause the mirror to look away.
There is no act in this world that will
ever make the mirror
say “no.”
The mirror, like perfect love, will just keep giving
of itself to all
before
it.
How did the mirror ever get like that, so polite,
so grand, so compassionate?
It watched God.
(…). P. 166.
Troubled?
Then stay with me, for I am not.
Lonely?
A thousand naked amorous ones dwell in ancient caves
beneath my eyelids.
Riches?
Here’s a pick,
my whole body is an emerald that begs,
“Take me.”
(…) P.168.
God
and I have become
like two giant fat people living
in a tiny
boat.
We
keep bumping into
each other
and
laughing.
P.171.
Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them, “Love me.”
Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise
someone would call the cops.
Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one who lives with a
full moon in each eye that is
always saying,
with that sweet moon language,
what every other eye in
this world is
dying to hear?
P.175.
Just
sit there right now.
Don’t do a thing. Just rest.
For your
separation from God
is the hardest work in this world.
Let me bring you trays of food and something
that you like to
drink.
You can use my soft words
as a cushion
for your
head.
P.176.
O wondrous creature
by what strange miracle do you
so often not
smile?
P.177.
(…)
The mind and the body are famous for holding the heart ransom,
but hafiz knows the Beloved’s eternal habits. Have patience,
for He will not be able to resist your longings
and charms for long.
You have not danced so badly, my dear,
trying to kiss the Magnificent
One.
You have actually waltzed with tremendous style,
my sweet, O my sweet
crushed
angel.
P.178.
(…)
God revealed
a sublime truth to the world,
when He
sang,
“I am made whole by your life. Each soul,
each soul completes
me.”
P.179.
All the above quotes from:
Last updated: 2008/10/27