Islam

Rûmî, Divan (Davis), “Love's Desire” / “The Finding of the Beloved”

Show Thy face, for I desire the orchard and the rose-garden;
Ope Thy lips, for I desire sugar in plenty.
O sun, show forth Thy face from the veil of cloud,
For I desire that radiant glowing countenance.
I was on that day when the Names were not,
Nor any sign of existence endowed with name,
By me Names and Named were brought to view
On the day when there was not "I" and "We,"
For a sign, the tip of the Beloved's curl became a centre of revelation;
As yet the tip of that curl was not.
Cross and Christians, from end to end,
I surveyed; He was not on the Cross.
I went to the idol-temple, to the ancient pagoda;
No trace was visible there.
I went to the mountains of Herāt and Candahār;
I looked; He was not in that hill-and-dale.
I gazed into my own heart;
There I saw Him; He was nowhere else.

Source Rûmî, Divan de Shams-i Tabrîz, extraits traduits par R. A. Nicholson (1898) et al., in F. Hadland Davis, The Persian Mystics: Jalálu’d-dín Rúmí (1907), gutenberg.org #45159 · Contents