Telling all the secrets Renderings
Hafiz
(Originally rendered by Daniel Ladinsky)
At This Party
I don’t want to be the only one here
Telling all the secrets –
Filling up all the bowls at this party,
Taking all the laughs.
I would like you
To start putting things on the table
That can also feed the soul
The way I do.
That way
We can invite
A hell of a lot more
Friends.
___
It Felt Love
How
Did the rose
Ever open its heart
And give to this world
All its
Beauty?
It felt the encouragement of Light
Against its
Being,
Otherwise,
We all remain
Too
Frightened.
___
The Day Sky
Let us be like
Falling stars in the day sky.
Let no one know of our sublime beauty
As we hold hands with God
And burn
Into a sacred existence that defies –
That surpasses
Every description of ecstasy
And love.
___
Why Abstain?
Why
Abstain from love
When like the beautiful snow goose
Someday your soul
Will leave this summer
Camp?
Why
Abstain from happiness
When like a skilled lion
Your heart is
Nearing
And
Will someday see
The divine prey is
Always
Near!
___
Buttering the Sky
Slipping
On my shoes,
Boiling water,
Toasting bread,
Buttering the sky:
That should be enough contact
With God in one day
To make anyone
Crazy.
___
Love is the Funeral Pyre
Love is
The funeral pyre
Where I have laid my living body.
All the false notions of myself
That once caused fear, pain,
Have turned to ash
As I neared God.
What has risen
From the tangled web of thought and sinew
Now shines with jubilation
Through the eyes of angels
And screams from the guts of
Infinite existence
Itself.
Love is the funeral pyre
Where the heart must lay
Its body.
___
That Lamp That Needs No Oil
I have made the journey into Nothing.
I have lit that lamp that
Needs no oil.
I have cried great streams
Of emerald crystals
On my scarred knees, begging love
To never again let me hear from
Any world
The sound of my own name,
Even from the voice of divine thought
Or see that pen you gave me, God,
In the sun’s or sky’s skillful hand
Writing
Anything other than the word —
ONE.
I have made the journey into Nothing
I have become the flame that needs
No fuel.
Beloved,
Now what need is there to ever
Call for Hafiz?
For if you did,
I would just step out
of YOU.