Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz (c.1320-1389).


More on Hafiz can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafez

 

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:

Ladinsky Daniel (2002). Love Poems from God. Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West. Penguin Group.

Last updated: 2008/10/27

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