Courage Conquers All Things
Once more I seek audience with my very own KingOnce again joyously I have spread my soul’s wing.Once more fate and fortune will beseechThat in this earthly camp, my tent I should pitch.We gave credence to the angels as well as to the beastThe soul’s bird returned once more to Solomon’s soulful feast.Intoxication by the Beloved has become my sweet abodeSoulful Joseph’s lock of hair is in an uncurling mode.Once a friend asked me, why thus engage your fate?Imagine how is the one who has found that soulful state!My determined Beloved unveiled his lovely faceThe canary of the soul sang his songs of praiseThe sweetness that is not found, even in dreamsFrom my own very teeth, thank goodness, sweetly teems.Headless, footless, indeed, without retinue I leadIn my own sweet land, sweetness to myself feed.Some one asked me to say something about things,
Yes my dear! Yes courage conquers all the things.
If you catch a fragrance of the unseen, like that, you won't be able to be
contained. You'll be out in empty sky. Any beauty the world has, any desire,
will easily be yours. As you live deeper in the heart, the mirror gets
clearer and cleaner. Shams of Tabriz realized God in himself. When that
happens, you have no anxieties about losing anyone or anything. You break
the spells human difficulties cause. Interpretations come, hundreds, from
all the religious symbols and parables and prayers. You know what they mean,
when God lives through you like Shams. This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness
Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence. Existence: This place made from our love for that emptiness!
Yet somehow comes emptiness, this existence goes.
Praise to that happening, over and over! For years I pulled my own existence out of emptiness.
Then one swoop, one swing of the arm, that work is over.
Free of who I was, free of presence, free of dangerous fear, hope, free of mountainous wanting.
The here-and-now mountain is a tiny piece of a piece of straw blown off into emptiness.
These words I'm saying so much begin to lose meaning: Existence, emptiness, mountain, straw:
Words and what they try to say swept out the window, down the slant of the roof.
For a while we lived with people,but we saw no sign in them of the faithfulness we wanted.It's better to hide completely withinas water hides in metal, as fire hides in a rock.
For years, copying other people, I tried to know myself.From within, I couldn't decide what to do.Unable to see, I heard my name being called.Then I walked outside.
Lord, said David, since you do not need us,why did you create these two worlds?
Reality replied: O prisoner of time,I was a secret treasure of kindness and generosity,and I wished this treasure to be known,so I created a mirror: its shining face, the heart;its darkened back, the world;The back would please you if you've never seen the face.
Has anyone ever produced a mirror out of mud and straw?Yet clean away the mud and straw, and a mirror might be revealed.
Until the juice ferments a while in the cask,it isn't wine. If you wish your heart to be bright,you must do a little work.
My King addressed the soul of my flesh:
, if a tree could wander and move with foot and wings!It would not suffer the axe blows and not the pain of saws!For would the sun not wander away in every night?How could at every morning the world be lighted up?And if the ocean’s water would not rise to the sky,How would the plants be quickened by streams and gentle rain?The drop that left its homeland, the sea, and then returned ?It found an oyster waiting and grew into a pearl.Did Yusaf not leave his father, in grief and tears and despair?Did he not, by such a journey, gain kingdom and fortune wide?Did not the Prophet travel to far Medina, friend?And there he found a new kingdom and ruled a hundred lands.You lack a foot to travel? Then journey into yourself!And like a mine of rubies receive the sunbeams? Print!Out of yourself? Such a journey will lead you to your self,It leads to transformation of dust into pure gold!
Once more I seek audience with my very own KingOnce again joyously I have spread my soul’s wing.Once more fate and fortune will beseechThat in this earthly camp, my tent I should pitch.We gave credence to the angels as well as to the beastThe soul’s bird returned once more to Solomon’s soulful feast.Intoxication by the Beloved has become my sweet abodeSoulful Joseph’s lock of hair is in an uncurling mode.Once a friend asked me, why thus engage your fate?Imagine how is the one who has found that soulful state!My determined Beloved unveiled his lovely faceThe canary of the soul sang his songs of praiseThe sweetness that is not found, even in dreamsFrom my own very teeth, thank goodness, sweetly teems.Headless, footless, indeed, without retinue I leadIn my own sweet land, sweetness to myself feed.Some one asked me to say something about things,
Yes my dear! Yes courage conquers all the things.
If you catch a fragrance of the unseen, like that, you won't be able to be
contained. You'll be out in empty sky. Any beauty the world has, any desire,
will easily be yours. As you live deeper in the heart, the mirror gets
clearer and cleaner. Shams of Tabriz realized God in himself. When that
happens, you have no anxieties about losing anyone or anything. You break
the spells human difficulties cause. Interpretations come, hundreds, from
all the religious symbols and parables and prayers. You know what they mean,
when God lives through you like Shams. This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness
Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence. Existence: This place made from our love for that emptiness!
Yet somehow comes emptiness, this existence goes.
Praise to that happening, over and over! For years I pulled my own existence out of emptiness.
Then one swoop, one swing of the arm, that work is over.
Free of who I was, free of presence, free of dangerous fear, hope, free of mountainous wanting.
The here-and-now mountain is a tiny piece of a piece of straw blown off into emptiness.
These words I'm saying so much begin to lose meaning: Existence, emptiness, mountain, straw:
Words and what they try to say swept out the window, down the slant of the roof.
For a while we lived with people,but we saw no sign in them of the faithfulness we wanted.It's better to hide completely withinas water hides in metal, as fire hides in a rock.
For years, copying other people, I tried to know myself.From within, I couldn't decide what to do.Unable to see, I heard my name being called.Then I walked outside.
Lord, said David, since you do not need us,why did you create these two worlds?
Reality replied: O prisoner of time,I was a secret treasure of kindness and generosity,and I wished this treasure to be known,so I created a mirror: its shining face, the heart;its darkened back, the world;The back would please you if you've never seen the face.
Has anyone ever produced a mirror out of mud and straw?Yet clean away the mud and straw, and a mirror might be revealed.
Until the juice ferments a while in the cask,it isn't wine. If you wish your heart to be bright,you must do a little work.
My King addressed the soul of my flesh:
, if a tree could wander and move with foot and wings!It would not suffer the axe blows and not the pain of saws!For would the sun not wander away in every night?How could at every morning the world be lighted up?And if the ocean’s water would not rise to the sky,How would the plants be quickened by streams and gentle rain?The drop that left its homeland, the sea, and then returned ?It found an oyster waiting and grew into a pearl.Did Yusaf not leave his father, in grief and tears and despair?Did he not, by such a journey, gain kingdom and fortune wide?Did not the Prophet travel to far Medina, friend?And there he found a new kingdom and ruled a hundred lands.You lack a foot to travel? Then journey into yourself!And like a mine of rubies receive the sunbeams? Print!Out of yourself? Such a journey will lead you to your self,It leads to transformation of dust into pure gold!
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