Saturday, March 1, 2025

Introduction to the Tradition of Mystical Love Poetry



How can I say it more simply?
Through a poem, a song, a gaze,
through the yeast-dust on a blueberry?
Through the closed green lids
of a slumbering bean?
How can I say it more simply?
Through the silence between words,
between this breath and the next,
from the place where breath begins?
"I invite you, I invite you, I invite you
to the summer of your heart."



       

The poet Shelley wrote: “Every original language near to its source is the chaos of a cyclic poem… A poet participates in the eternal, the infinite, and the one.” Ancient cultures recognized that the mystery of creation is the mystery of “original language.” So John’s Gospel declares, “In the beginning was the Word.” And India’s Mandukya Upanishad says, “All that ever was, is, or will be is created through a single syllable, Om.”

The poems in this volume reflect this ancient science of mantra. “Mannas” is the Sanskrit root of the English “mind,” and “tra” is the root of the English suffix, “tron,” meaning vehicle - as in "electron," a vehicle for an electrical charge. A mantra is a vehicle to carry the mind back to the source of creation, divine silence. Here in the heart, love awakens. 

Many of these poems also reflect the tradition of the mystical marriage. Poets of Eastern and Western religions understood the intimate play of soul and spirit as the whispering of Lover and Beloved. They created a common poetic iconography, a love-language both sensuous and mystical, which we find in Sufi poets like Hafiz, Hindu poets like Mirabai, the Biblical Song of Songs, the Medieval troubadours, and the parables of Jesus.


 The mystical poetry of all spiritual traditions shares a common language and purpose. The same thread runs through the Biblical Song of Songs and parables of Jesus; the Medieval troubadours and Christian mystics like Mechtilde of Magdeberg or St. Theresa of Avila; Rabia, Rumi, Hafiz, the Sufi poets of Islam; wandering poet-saints of India such as Mirabai and Laladev. Their purpose is not just to entertain but to rebel against external hierarchies of religious power, re-open the gates of the Heart, and restore our birthright of inner radiance.

I dare not criticize scholars more erudite than I, but it is wrong to use the word 'erotic' to describe mystical love poetry, as some of them do. Rumi uses 'wine' to represent a divine inebriation that has nothing to do with alcohol. In the same way, such poets use images of sexual love to describe what the senses can never grasp. 'Eros', from the Greek, refers to passion for an object. But divine love is passion for the subject, the eternal Self.

Thus Jesus uses another word for love, 'agape,' different from either 'eros' (erotic love) or 'philios' (family love).

The poems of Jnaneswar, Jayadev, Mirabai, Lala, Rumi, Hafiz, Rabia, St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Avila are not erotic. They are beads of 'agape,' threaded on one golden string of symbolic language across the centuries and continents.

The purpose of erotic literature is to arouse sensuality in the lower chakras; the purpose of mystical love poetry is to awaken the heart, a more refined and evolved energy. Mystical love poetry cultivates inwardness; erotic poetry cultivates outwardness. Eros engenders sensuality; mystical love engenders the delicate relationship of awareness with its Source, unveiling the nakedness of the Beloved beyond touch, fragrance and sound. For we only know the Beloved through a transcendental fire, not a fire that burns, but a flame that centers the soul.

Please do not let any scholar diminish the dignity of this holy tradition by telling you that the poetry of mystical love is merely 'erotic,' when it transcends the erotic as the moon transcends its reflection in a still forest pool.
* * * *

Mystical poetry invites not only the mind but the nervous system, at the finest level of feeling, to reconnect broken circuits linking the cerebral cortex to the cardiac plexus. For neuro-cardiologists now know that the heart contains neurons and neuro-peptide transmitters as complex as the brain. The heart is not just a pump, but a neural center of immense emotional intelligence.

This neurological path from mind to heart is broken by fear-based dogmatic religion. Religions that sustain their control through fear and punishment keep human physiology in a constant fight-or-flight reaction. This constant stress prevents our subtle physiology from developing the neural pathways that conduct divine light up the spine, through the heart, into the crown of the head, and down again, in a circuit of rejuvenation. The power is very real, not imagined. It is a subtle nerve current that inebriates us like wine: not with mind-dulling alcohol, but with the ecstatic clarity of God's love.

This divine energy, circulating between the brain and the heart, is called prana shakti  in India's Vedic tradition, chi in  Chinese Taoism, and Holy Spirit in Christianity. The prana flows up through the spine, opening the centers of spiritual experience called chakras: energy-wheels.

This infusion of spiritual energy into the body, and the blossoming of the chakras, is the true meaning of resurrection. Jesus spoke of this transformation in the ajna chakra, the Third Eye in the forehead,  when he said, "The Eye is the light of the body. If that eye is whole, your whole body will be filled with light" (Luke 11:34). But religious dogmatism and the threat of punishment, taught in Jesus' name, prevented the resurrection of our bodies and the second coming of the Christ-Consciousness in our physiology.
* * * *

In mystical poetry, the process of infusing the body with spiritual light, uniting the human individual to God, is imaged and imagined by a universal set of symbols that are remarkably consistent, whether we read the poetry of Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, or Islam. We can present the key symbols of this mystical vocabulary in a simple list:
* The garden
* Wilderness
* Tree and fruit
* Bridegroom and Bride
* Mystical Marriage and Wedding Feast
* Kiss
* Wine cup and Wine
* Inebriation and Bewilderment
* Tavern (Sometimes the meeting place is a tavern rather than a garden, when the soul and God are imaged as drinking partners and good friends, rather than bride and groom.)

GARDEN: The physiology of spiritual transformation is often depicted as a Garden. This garden is essential to the mystic love poetry of all traditions, East and West. The Tree of Life in the center of this garden grows from the heart. Our primary nourishment was not intended to come from the brain but from the heart. That other tree, the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, bears the fruit of opposites, duality. It is the brain-stem, branching up into the cerebral cortex. We are permitted to witness dualistic thinking, but not to grasp its fruit, lest we fall into a world of conflict created by our own minds. Dualistic thinking, in terms of 'I am right and you are wrong,' is the fruit of this tree, spreading the poison of sectarian conflict. Our true roots are in the heart, not the mind. So the brain-stem must be planted downward, through the spine, in the space of the heart.

The rebel poets invite us to leave the Tree of the Knowledge, and our addiction to dualistic thinking, nourishing ourselves instead from the living Tree in the Garden of the Heart. The heart is a wild place! That means, it is full of natural affections which can be intuitively trusted, rather than the priestly regulations of religious dogma. Here, Lover and Beloved, God and the soul, transcend logic and drink the wine of bewilderment.

Every religious tradition describes this wild Garden in the Heart, the neural center of our original innocence, where unity outshines duality. In the Bible, the Heart is Eden. It is also the garden of mystical marriage in the Song of Songs and in Jesus' parables, where the Bridegroom meets the Bride. This is also the garden of the Resurrection, where Mary Magdalene met Jesus after the resurrection.

This garden is also Vrindavan in Indian poetry, where Radha meets Krishna to dance the Rhasa dance of longing and union. And we cannot forget the wild garden of the Islamic mystics, found in the Rubaiyat of Omar Kayyim and in the poems of Rumi: "Out beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field: will you meet me there?"

WILDERNESS: In this wilderness of the Heart, creatures fulfill the real purpose of creation, merging back into the creator with fully individualized awareness. Then Lover and Beloved can be two in one and one in two. We cannot celebrate this Wedding in the cerebral cortex, through dualistic either-or thinking, which insists that one cannot be two and two cannot be one. We only experience this affair with God in the awakened neurophysiology of the heart. This is why the mystics of all traditions have called us to "descend from the mind into the heart": a practical instruction for meditation that is explicitly found in both Eastern and Western texts on meditation (the Shiva Sutras of North Indian Shaivism, and the Philokalia of Orthodox Christianity).

The sacred wilderness of the heart is a central theme in the Jewish Bible as well. The prophet Hosea remembers a time before Israel adopted the pseudo-sophistication of urban life. He recalls their sacred wandering in the wilderness, the divine intimacy of being lost. For when we are most lost in the wild of our original nature, we find ourselves most akin to the Spirit. God calls with yearning to Israel:
"I will woo her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. There I will restore her vineyards... On that day, she will call me My Husband, and will no longer call me My Master! (Hosea 2)
Through the prophet Jeremiah, God sighs:
"I remember the unfailing devotion of  your youth, the love of your bridal days, when you followed me into the wilderness, through a land unsown." (Jeremiah 1)
Jesus also called us back into the wilderness: "Come away by yourselves into the wilderness, and rest awhile" (Mark 6:31) And in La Quest de la Sangral, the anonymous Cistercian author tells us that "each knight entered the forest where it was darkest and there was no way or path."

CUP AND WINE: The empty cup symbolizes the soul as feminine, receptive, waiting on the Lord to be filled with his Word and his Wine. C. S. Lewis referred to this universal language of love when he said, "In relation to God, we are all feminine." The cup must first be cleansed and purified by mindfulness, yoga, and meditation. Then by grace the empty soul my be filled with divine love. Therefor Jesus taught: "First cleanse the inside of the cup" (Mat 23:26). He chose wine as the living symbol of his grace, in the Last Supper, offering it to his disciples: "This cup is the new covenant, the new relationship, of my blood; whenever you drink it, remember me.” (1 Cor 11:25)

Speaking of the wine of love, the Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible invites us, "Eat, friends, and drink, get drunk with love!" (5:1 - "Drink deeply" is a Hebrew euphemism for inebriation.) In his Diwan, Rumi speaks of "the wine that springs from the heart and mixes with the spirit, the wine whose bubbling intoxicates the God-seeing eye" (Ghazal 81). Elsewhere he writes, "I am so drunk, I have lost the way in and the way out." Then Rumi reminds us that, "The true wine is compassion."

One of India's greatest poets, Kabir describes meditation as being "drunk on the juice of Ram's bliss." Another immortal devotional poet of India, Mirabai sings, "I drank the cup of God's music, and I am hopelessly drunk; moreover I stay drunk, no matter what I do to become sober."

Islamic mystics also used the symbol of wine, even though Islam prohibits alcohol. The 14th Century Persian, Mahmud Shabistari, writes:
The wine, lit by a ray from his face,
reveals the bubbles of form,
such as the material world and the soul-world,
which appear as veils to the saints...

Drink wine! for the bowl is the face of the Friend.
Drink wine! for the cup is his eye, drunken and flown with wine.
Drink wine! and be free from cold-heartedness,
for a drunkard is better than the self-satisfied.

The world is his tavern,
his wine-cup the heart of each atom!
And the quintessential Persian poet Hafiz, sings:
Ask not what use
Is drunkenness!
From reason, when you drink,
You are released.
I will drink glass after glass
I will kiss, kiss after kiss,
I will love exceedingly
I will drink endlessly.

INEBRIATION (BE-WILD-ERMENT): Mystics praise the wine of bewilderment. This is not the wine of earthly grapes, though the imagery used in the poems is quite earthy, even shockingly sensual at times. The wine of God's love inebriates us in the sense that it raises our consciousness above the dualistic mind, into the ecstasy of union. Poets describe the ecstasy of union as a kind of mystical drunkenness and bewilderment.

The word, be-wild-erment, is so rich, suggesting not only a state of wonder, but being in the wild. The young Martin Luther wrote, "Bewilderment is the true comprehension." Rhineland Catholic mystic Johann Tauler, a fellow of Meister Eckhart, used wilderness imagery to describe unity of mind and God:
"In unity, all multiplicity is lost. This unity unites multiplicity in an incomprehensibly wild wilderness... the simple hidden wilderness beyond being."
(Johann Tauler, Sermon 6)
Such mystics do not call us to flee from civilization, but to establish a new civilization of the Heart. In his essay On Poetry, Shelley wrote that "the poet is the unacknowledged legislator of reality." Or course, this is also true of the artist, dancer and musician. The revolution that will transmute our reality into "a new heaven and a new earth" does not begin with the programs of political science, the theories of the economics, or the protest of the angry activist. No political or economic reform can change the world until there is a transmutation of the Heart, a resurrection of matter itself in the physiological circuity of the human body.

THE KISS: The author of the Song of Songs sing, "O let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth... for your love is sweeter than wine, and your name is perfume poured out!"
When two lovers kiss, they are so close they cannot see each other's form, or speak. They must close their eyes and be silent as they press their lips together. That is why, in the songs of the Troubadours and all mystical love poetry, the Kiss becomes the symbol of transcendental union between the soul and God. So Rumi sings:
"There is some kiss we all want, the kiss of the body and the Spirit."
The highly developed symbolism of the Gnostic Gospel of Phillip culminates in the sacrament of "the Bridal Chamber," where lovers are united. The archetype of this union is the relationship of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but it is a wedding of souls, transforming erotic love into mystical love. Here the union of lovers results in rebirth into a higher order of love:
"Fully realized human beings are conceived by a kiss, and then they are born." (Analog 17)
The Gospel of Thomas contains a Gnostic saying of Jesus which also describes, in symbolism related to the kiss, how Christ communicates his mystical life directly to the soul:
"Whoever drinks what flows from my mouth will come to be as I am.
* * * *
A REVOLUTION BOTH MYSTICAL & POLITICAL 

The transformation of our body's subtlest energy-pathways will empower us to envision unity in the midst of conflict, to evolve competition into cooperation, and to reshape hierarchies into circles of democratic community. The opening of the Heart has profound sociopolitical meaning: it means that we can choose love over power. And this revolution begins with the inspiration of the artist's vision. A single line by Rumi or Haffiz, a verse from the Song of Songs, or an image from the ecstatic songs of Mirabai, can trigger the shift of awareness from the mind to the heart. Thus, the mystical poets are true revolutionaries in every sense.

Full activation of the brain-heart complex is the necessary prerequisite to any meaningful socio-economic transformation. This is why the mystical artist is necessary for political revolution. Without the awakening of the Heart, mere political reforms fall short, replacing one hierarchy of power with another. This is also why, throughout history, mystical poets were exiled, imprisoned, or executed as heretics. They were a gentle but real threat to the power structure, the hierarchy.

Patriarchal systems, both priestly and political, use hierarchy to subjugate the powerless. This reign of fear is more efficiently accomplished through religious dogma than through armies or police states. Mystical poetry casts down the pomp of the over-educated mind, liberates awareness from duality of vision, and demolishes patriarchal systems of authority. Mystical poetry is dangerous! Even the song of the gentle Mary, called the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) contains the language of cultural overthrow and economic revolution. Gentle as its words may appear, the Magnificat is radical:
My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant... He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;  he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones and has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he has sent away empty.
As mystical poetry reconnects the flowing circle between brain and heart, it leads us to form circles of community rather than hierarchies of power. When the Circle is complete inside us, the gates of a new Eden spontaneously open in society.

Mystical art does not accomplish this revolution through violence, conflict, confrontation, or even argument. The poetry of the mystic may be ironic, iconoclastic, even shocking in its imagery, using the imagres of sensual love, wine, and ecstatic dance to convey the relationship of God and the soul. But this poetry is never angry or demeaning. The poet of the Heart gives us an invitation, not an ultimatum; inspiration, not creed; possibility, not law.

The endocrine and neural pathways to the Heart must be built with the gentlest of feelings, and freely chosen, never enforced. New protein tracks to the Garden cannot be laid down by the arousal of fear, or the rigidity of commandment. These pathways are soft wilderness trails through the neural landscape of the meditative body, entangled with blossoming vines of tenderness, nourished by Grace. The joyful voice of the Heart calls us not to believe but to surrender.

* * * *
AN INVITATION

Who told you that you transgressed? Who told you that you sinned? Who told you that the Divine would punish you for becoming Divine again? Now inherit your birthright: you are God's love, flowing back to its Source.

The voice you heard, proclaiming original sin, was the voice of the false priest, the wielder of the staff of Religion. It was not the voice of the Beloved. For your inheritance is original innocence. The only God worthy of your worship is the God who calls you 'lover,' not 'sinner,' the Lord who invites you to unity, not separation.

Spirit created you in the image of Spirit; why would Spirit anoint you with any oil less precious than your own divine Awareness?

Come! Give up fear. Do not build barriers of separation, hiding shamefully from the Lord who walks in the cool of the evening with you, in the Garden of your Heart. Listen not to the voice of judgment, but to the flute of divine longing. Then, when your silence overflows, speak to the Beloved as the Bride spoke, in the Song of Songs:
O let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth... for your love is sweeter than wine, and your name is perfume poured out! (Song of Songs, 1)

Poems of Mystical Love in English and Arabic

"Your lips are sweeter than wine, and your name
is perfume poured out." ~Song of Songs


"The true wine is compassion." ~Rumi


 
   Illustration from 'Rubaiyat' of Omar Kaiyyam by Edmund Dulac
English poems of mystical love by Alfred K. LaMotte with Arabic translations by Dana Chamseddine, rendered in the spirit of Arabic love poetry, for Dana herself is a mystic poetess. We reach out through the veils of language, Arabic and English caressing and melting one another's words, celebrating the universal music of devotion.

This voice resonates from the ancient Hebrew Song of Songs to the Aramaic sayings of Jesus, from the Sufis of Islam to the Troubadours of Medieval Europe, from the Christian mystics to the wandering poet saints of India. Love's vocabulary reveals that, though there are myriad languages, and as many paths to God as human hearts, all lead to the same garden.


1. ISHQ'

Because your sighs have fermented
my blood, I need no wine.
My name on your lips is the longest Sura.
I begin the Night Journey in your eyes
toward the wild desert fragrance
I longed for all day.
The only revelation is my face
reflected in your gaze.
Keep your window open:
Do not turn this emptiness to glass,
lest you profane the Prophet
and make gazing an Eye.
Without the savor of your presence,
my senses are idols.
The very thought of love is blasphemy
if not coupled with your kiss.
Ignore the picture in your mind:
like a lover's map,
it was sketched by trembling.
Look to the hollow seeds,
the emptiness before conception.
We are a mirror leaning on a mirror,
reflecting a wilderness of purity.
We are each others' search
for the space between,
for the fiercest clarity
where zero became two
in the bright space of unknowing:
you, the last veil of my desire,
and I, the veil within that;
I, the last veil of your desire,
and you, translucent, blue,
the color of yearning itself.
Spin quickly now, before
the other vanishes,
so that we may catch God
at the center of whirling.
You lit me on the wick of your eye
where I danced as seeing.
From the golden oil in my bones
I kindled you.
A soul for my soul,
you gushed through my hollow places.
Anoint me now!
Drip down this broken necklace
of seven dangling pearls.
From throat to thigh, unite
the sea and setting sun.
Of purple curtains in the King's chamber
we may speak,
but never of what happens
on the other side.
When dawn comes we'll whisper
which of us was stillness,
which the dancer.
عشق
لأنّ آهاتك قد خمّرت دمي،
لا أحتاج إلى نبيذ...
اسمي على شفتيك هو السورة الأكبر.
وفي عينيك أبدأ رحلة الليل
نحو صحراء بريّة الرحيق.
لا وحي إلا صورة وجهي
منعكسة في شخوص عينيك.
دعيهما نافذة مفتوحة،
ولا تحوّلي فراغك إلى زجاج
حتى لا تدنّسي النبوة
وتعودي بعينيك من البصيرة إلى البصر.
عندما لا أرنو إليك،
تصير عيني وثناً.
حتى فكرة ‘المحبوب’ تصبح وثناً
إذا ما لم تُقرن بقبلته.
لذا تجاهلي الصور التي تكوّنت في رأسك:
فهي، كخرائط العشاق، قد رُسمت بارتعاش.
وانظري بدلاً منها إلى البذور الراسخة،
إلى الفراغ فيها قبل اللقاح
حيث يصبح الصفر اثنين
في فضاء اللامعرفة المشرق (الساطع).
نبحث معاً عمّا بين مرآتين،
عن ذلك النقاء البريّ،
فتصيرين بحثي وأصير بحثك.
أنت، حجاب لذّتي الأخير
وأنا، حجاب الحجاب،
شفّاف، أزرق، بلون السماوات التوّاقة.
اغزلي الآن سريعاً قبل أن يزول الآخر
فقد نلتقي واللهَ في مركز الدوران.
أشعلتني على فتيل عينيك:
فرقصت هناك في النظر.
ومن الزيت الذهبيّ في عظامي، أضأتُكِ،
روحاً لروحي، تتدفق في أماكني الجوفاء،
وفي جروحي.
امسحي رأسي بالزيت الآن! قطّريه على هذا العقد المنثور
من سبع لآلئ معلّقة.
من أعلى الرأس إلى أسفل الحوض، وحّدي البحر بالشمس إذ تغيب.
يمكننا الحديث عن ستائر ليلكيّة في غرفة الملك،
لكننا لا نتحدّث أبداً عمّا يحدث في الضفّة الأخرى!
وعندما ينبلج الفجر، سوف نهمس:
مَن منّا كان السكون، ومن كان الراقص.


2. THE CUP


Dogen saw stars in a dewdrop. 
Ananda saw Buddha in a flower.
 

I saw Christ gazing back at me
from the bottom of the empty cup.
 

Some pour it all out to get here.
I got here by drinking
everything.

 

الكأس
شاهد دوغن النجوم في قطرة الندى.
وشاهد أناندا البوذا في زهرة.
ورأيت المسيح يحدّق بي
من أسفل الكأس.
بعضهم يفرغ كأسه ليصل إلى هنا.
أما أنا، فأصل حين أشرب
كل شيء.


3. RIPPLES 

Be widening pond ripples after the pebble disappears.
Millions will feel a breath on their cheek.

Circle me in you vanishing, as I encircle you.
We're waves of one another now.

Love's generous center only knows
opening, emptying, trembling into stillness.

Worlds float in us like water lilies.
This earth is one that just blossomed...


كوني تموجات بحيرة تتـّسع إذ تختفي الحصاة.
سوف يشعر الملايين بنفـَس على خدودهم.
اغمريني باختفائك، إذ أغمرك.
نحن ارتداد موج بعضنا البعض الآن.
ومركز الحب السخيّ وحده يعلم
كيف نتفتـّح، نُفرغ ذواتنا، ثم نرتجف حتى السكون.
تطفو العوالم فوقنا مثل زنابق الماء:
أحدها هو الأرض التي ما لبثت أن أزهرت.



4. WANDERERS WELCOME

"We seldom notice how each day is a holy place where the 
Eucharist of the ordinary happens." ~John O'Donahue
Out beyond Christianity
Magdalene and Jesus are dancing
 

in a garden where things grow wild,
where things grow into what they are.
 

Many paths lead here, not one,
and the gates are always open.
 

Over each gate there's a sign:
'Wanderers Welcome.'
 

Mary thinks Jesus is the gardener,
and he is.
 

They drink the wine that turns
temples into bodies again.

 

She reaches out to take his hand:
he lets her.
 

There are three rules here:
Yearn, Risk Everything, Connect.
 


أهلاً بالمتجولين
"نادرا ما نلاحظ كيف يكون كل يوم مكانا مقدسا نتناول فيه قربان الأشياء العادية المقدس". جون أودوناهو

بعيدا ما وراء المسيحية
ترقص المجدلية ويسوع
في حديقة تنمو فيها الأشياء بريّةً،
تنمو لتصبح كما تكون.
مسارات كثيرة تؤدي إلى هنا،
والبوابات مفتوحة أبدا.
وفوق كل باب توجد إشارة:
‘أهلا بالمتجولين.’
تظن مريم أن يسوع هو البستاني،
وهو يكون كما تظن.
يشربان الخمر التي تحوّل
ثانيةً المعابد إلى أجساد.
تنحني نحوه لتأخذ بيده:
يسمح لها.
هناك ثلاثة قوانين هنا:
توقي، خاطري بكل شيء، إتصلي.


5. ANAHATTA

There's a heart within your heart.
When this one beats
that one sings about light.

The gong in the hollow of the atom.
Photons echoing the golden bell
that was never struck.

This sound could only be a Lover
whispering your name.  
Why should your flesh be filled with
anything but music?

آناهاتّا
هناك قلب داخل قلبكِ:
عندما يدق هذا، يغني الآخر أغنية النور.
كل ذراتك الجوفاء تقرع ناقوس الغناء.
وضُويئاتك تردد صوت الجرس الذهبي
الذي لم يُقرع، الجرس الذي لا بداية له.
إنه صوت حبيبكِ
يهمس باسمك.
فكيف يمكن لجسمك أن يمتلئ
بشيء غير الموسيقى؟



 6. WHAT BOTH NAMES MEAN


You are Rahman, I Raheem.
You are the heartbeat, I the pause.
One creates, the other listens.

Anyone claiming to know which is which
is more confused than the pollen  
of a thousand flowers in a drop of honey.

All we are permitted to know
is that God's name and our name both mean
'thank you.'  

There is a secret bowing in the hollows
of heart, throat, cell, and atom.
Everything is filled with longing and pulsation.

معنى الاسمين
أنتِ الرحمن، أنا الرحيم.
أنتِ دقات القلب، أنا الصمت بينها.
أحدنا يَخلق، الآخر يُخلق.

من ادّعى أنه يعرف التمييز بين الواحد والآخر منا
هو أشد ارتباكاً في معرفة الأصل
من رحيق آلاف الأزهار
في قطرة عسل.

كل
ما تحقّ لنا معرفته
هو أن اسم الله واسمنا،
اثنيهما، يعنيان الشكر.

هناك سجود سريّ
في جوف قلوبنا،
وحناجرنا، وخلايانا، وذراتنا.

كل شيء فينا مليء بالتوق،
وبالنبض.



7. THE TAVERN IN MY HEART

At the tavern in my heart there's a name on the door

that turns all other words to laughter,


but I can't pronounce it when I get this way.

I just dance in the street and shout at people


who pretend to ignore me.

But now and then when I’m sober, I start hollering,


“Don't go to work today, don’t pay off those debts!

Your sins are too vast!


Just step in here awhile and taste some bewilderment.

The inn keeper won't bill you till the end of time.


Then you can tell him, It's all your fault,

your hospitality made me tipsy!


Friend, this wine is better than breast milk.

When nothing's left, you'll see the Beloved's face


gazing from the bottom of your cup.

Then you'll sing like me:
 
“This is the emptiness we all adore!"



حانة قلبي
هناك اسم على باب حانة قلبي
يحول كل الكلمات إلى ضحكات،
غير أنه لا يمكنني النطق به  وأنا في هذه الحال.
جُلّ ما أستطيعه أن أرقص في الشارع وأصرخ
بوجه من يتظاهرون عادة بتجاهلي.
لكنني، بين حين وآخر، أغدو رزيناً، فأهتف قائلاً:
لا تذهبوا إلى العمل اليوم؟! لا تسددوا كل هذه الديون!
فإن ذنوبكم شاسعة جدا!
بل ادخلوا إلى هنا قليلاً وتذوقوا بعض الانذهال.
فصاحب الحانة لن يحاسبكم حتى نهاية الزمن.
قولوا له أن الخطأ خطأه،
وأن حسن ضيافته قد أودت بكم إلى السكر!
نديمتي، إن هذا النبيذ لأفضل من حليب الثدي.
عندما تنفد الخمرة، سترين وجه الحبيب
يحدق بكِ من أسفل الكأس.
عندها ستغنين مثلي:
"هذا هو الفراغ الذي كلنا نعبده !"



8. MANSUR'S SECRET

Before they crucified him
for proclaiming
"an'l haqq!'
Mansur al Hallaj
whispered a secret
to me
about you.
Tell her, he said,
I was calling
her name.

عشية يوم صلبه
لشهره بقول: "أنا الحق!
أسرّ لي الحلاج بحديث عنكِ.
أخبِرْها، قال هامساً،
أنّي ناديتُ
اسمها.



9. BOTH

You are both Lover and Beloved, one and two.
Not in some ancient garden of Vrindavan,
but on a swing inside breathing:
your sigh, a wanting beyond desire,
and what enters, filling silence.
There is a midnight for love, and a dawn.
If you think you can live without Radha,
you will never meet Krishna.
If you think you can live without yearning
you will never be content.


معاً
أنتِ المحبّ والمحبوب معاً، أنتِ الواحد والإثنان.
ليس في جنائن فريندافان القديمة،
بل على أرجوحة داخل النفَس:
تنهيداتك، توقك الذي يتجاوز الرغبة،
وما يدخل ليملأ الصمت.
هناك منتصف ليل لأجل الحب، وهناك فجر.
إنْ ظننتِ العيش جائزاً من دون ‘رادها’،
فإنّ ‘كريشنا’ لن يظهر.
وإنْ ظننتِه ممكناً من دون توق،
فسوف لن تعانقك السعادة.



10. ON MY DAUGHTER'S BIRTH DAY ( A PROSE POEM)  

You enter the world like the soft pollen-fall of petals released from their mothering flower. You smile, and death becomes shy. From one wounded wing to another: don't try to fly. Depend on the wind's breath. You are never one moment old. My beautiful daughter, my beautiful soul, my beautiful body, dance in eternity today!


في ذكرى ميلادك!
تدخلين إلى العالم كبتلات أعتقتها أمهاتها فتساقطت بتؤدة مثل حبيبات اللقاح. تبتسمين فيخجل الموتلا تحاولي الطيران من جناح نازف إلى آخر. اعتمدي على تنفس الرياح. لن تبلغي من العمر هنيهة واحدة. يا قلبي الجميل الذي لم يولد ، يا روحي الجميلة التي لم تولد ، يا جسدي الجميل الذي لم يولد، ارقصي في الأبدية اليوم!


 
11. DISTANCE

A sea between us,
yet still one gaze, one longing,
sharing the full moon.
What is distance?

المسافة
محيط يفصل بيننا،
ولكن، نبقى نتتقاسم هذا البدر
بشخوص واحد، وتوق واحد! 
ما المسافة عندها ؟



12. NADEEMATI




Jesus and Mary are wine,
and what wine does to the heart.

Ha'Shem and Shekinah, the evening sky,
and the sound of larks that fill it.

Shakti and Shiva, twin edges of the sword
that enters and leaves me with each sigh.

This is how we are one, Nadeemati:
I gush without form from a hidden spring

on the mountainside; you are the valley
that shapes my fall into a river carrying boats

laden with grapes and barley.
I have no name until all creatures are fed.

The sound of their praise is your body.
We are sheathed in each other’s breathing.

نديمتي
يسوع ومريم هما الخمرة، وما تفعله في القلب؛
شاكتي، وشيفا: سماء المساء، وصوت القبّرات التي تملأها؛
حدّان للسيف الذي
يدخل ويخرج مني مع كل نفَس.
هكذا نصير واحداً، نديمتي: أتدفق دونما شكل
من نبع خفي على سفح الجبل.
فتكونين الوادي الذي يرسم مساري نهراً
يحمل القوارب مثقلة بالعنب والشعير.
لن يكون لي اسم حتى يشبع الجميع.
وتصيرين صوت ثنائهم.
 

NOTES: Nadeemati in Arabic means ‘my wine drinking partner’ (feminine). Ha’Shem (The Name) is itself the name of God in Hebrew, for the true name cannot be pronounced. The Shekinah is God’s feminine Spirit, dwelling in the human community as the yearning soul. Shakti is the feminine spiritual energy of Shiva, the divine Self, in Indian philosophy. She dwells coiled in the human spine and is awakened through meditation.



13. FIRE

I cannot say, “I love you.”
Words are only embers, not flames.
I just say, “Look at my heart.”
And if you would endure it,
make your eyes pure light.
Polish seeing like glass,
then tilt it toward
this speechless radiance.
Here is what happens
in the mirror of your longing:
My love sets all the creatures around you
on fire.
Now burn this poem.

النار
لن أقول، "أحبكِ":
فالكلام جمرٌ، لا لهب.
أقول، "انظري داخل قلبي".
وإن أمكنك الصمود، اجعلي
عينيك نوراً محضاً.
أصقلي البصر كالزجاج، واحنِهِ
نحو هذا التوهّج الصامت.
هذا ما يحدث
في مرآة التوق:
يضرم حبي النار في الخلائق من حولك.




14. SILENT ONE (A PROSE POEM)

When we refrain from speaking the word Love, we hear wings descending through silence. When we refrain from using the word God, these wings settle on our mouths, like a kiss. That is the kiss that the Silent One gives us now.


عندما نمتنع عن التفوّه بكلمة "الحب"، نسمع أجنحة تحلق من خلال هذا الصمت. عندما نمتنع عن التفوّه بكلمة "الله"، تستقرّ تلك الأجنحة على أفواهنا، مثل قبلة. هي قبلة الواحد الساكن يمنحنا إياها الآن



15. CONTRADICT THYSELF

Scholars in Egypt recently discovered a transcription of the original stone tablet given to Moses on the Holy Mountain. The tablet contained the first and only commandment: "Contradict Thyself." But since humans were not ready for this, Moses shattered the stone. Here is the complete transcription:
Contradict Thyself.
Be foolish and wise, joyful and sad, immaculate and sensuous.
Be radiant blackness, empty and full.
Less than an atom, encompass the universe.
Be the fallen Virgin and the youthful Crone.
Be the Mother and the Son.
Rebel and surrender, have faith and believe in nothing.
Be still in the fury of the dance, find power in helplessness.
Be gentle as a warrior, wrathful as a dove defending her nest.
Enlighten your heart through un-knowing.
Discover wisdom through laughter.
Make work your play.
Remember that the opposite is also true: this stops the mind.
Let God become dust, let dust become God:
this is why you have a body.
Celebrate dying: you are never one moment old. 
Gaze into the smallest flower and become the sky.
 
 

ناقض نفسك
اكتشف علماء الحفريات في مصر مؤخراً نسخة عن اللوح الحجري الأصلي للوصايا التي نزلت على موسى في الجبل المقدس. وتبيّن في النسخة أن اللوح كان يتضمن وصية واحدة فقط، هي الأولى والأخيرة: "ناقض نفسك." غير أن موسى لاحظ أن البشر ليسوا على استعداد بعد لتقبل هذه الوصية، فحطم الحجر. ها هنا النص الكامل للوصية كما وُجدت:

"ناقض نفسك.
كن أحمقاً وحكيماً، بهيجاً وحزيناً، طاهراً وحسيّاً.
كن سواداً مشعّاً، فارغاً وملآن.
كن أصغر من ذرة، وكبيراً سعة الكون.
كن العذراء الساقطة، والحيزبون الشابة.
كن الأم والولد.
كن متمرداً ومستسلماً، مؤمناً وملحداً.
كن ساكناً في حمأة الرقص، وجِد قوة في عجزك.
كن لطيفاً كمحارب، حانقاً كحمامة تدافع عن عشها.
أنِر قلبك باللامعرفة.
واكتشف الحكمة في الضحك.
واجعل العمل ألعوبتك.
تذكر أن النقيض صحيح أيضا: هكذا يتوقّف فكرك.
دع الإله يصير تراباً، دع التراب يصير إلهاً:
لذا قد وُهبتَ جسداً.
احتفل بالموت، فإنك لن تبلغ من العمر لحظة.
حدّق بأصغر زهرة وكن السماء ".


16. The Poppy

Love has ruined my heart.
A multitude of poppies grow
in rubble where once a warrior
stood defending the One.
Thirst is my strength now.
Tears are mighty shields of prayer
arming my eyes against night.
My lips drink the sky,
my only meditation to await
a rendezvous
with the breath of the Beloved.
Her name is the morning star.

  

زهرة الخشخاش
لقد أتلف الحب قلبي.
ينمو الخشخاش تحت الأنقاض
حيث وقف محارب يوماً
يدافع عن الواحد الأحد.
يصبح العطش قوّتي.
ودموعي دروع من الصلاة
تتسلّح بها عيناي ضد الليل.
وتأملي الوحيد يمسي
انتظار موعد مع زفرة الحبيب،
مع كوكب الصباح.


17. Another Heart

Something inside me broke its golden center,
spilling all circumference,
drowning edges in a sea of breath
like ancient ruined cities of coral.
I thought it was my heart
beaten by yours, torn by silence.
But no, there is another heart
where your name and my name are lost
in rhythms of yearning,
where form's boundaries submerge
in the music of an inhalation and a sigh.
No, there is another heart, dear one,
deep inside yours and mine,
whose only joy is the wound of love.

قلب آخر
شيء ما تحطم في داخلي
وجوهره الذهبي،
فاض على المحيط،
فأغرق الأطراف في بحر من النَفَس
كأطلال مدن الماضي المرجانية اللون.
ظننته قلبي
تحطم على يدك،
ممزقاً بالصمت.
لكنني أخطأت: هناك قلب آخر
بضيع فيه اسمك واسمي
في إيقاعات الحنين،
تغوص فيه الأشكال والحدود
في موسيقى الشهيق وتنفس الصعداء.
هناك قلب آخر، حبيبتي،
في أعماق قلبك وقلبي،
قلب لا يفرح إلا بجرح الحب.


18. Sighs

There are as many paths to God
as human hearts,
as many names for God
 

as there are sighs.
First we talk philosophy,
then get serious and sing.


Names drown in music.
Lovers quarrel over where to have supper,
then they eat, drink wine,

and gaze between candles
with perfect understanding
in the silent language of fire.

We have a hundred restaurants to choose from,
but the point is what happens
after we get full.

الطرق إلى الله
هناك طرق عديدة إلى الله
بعدد قلوب البشر.
وأسماء كثيرة لله
بعدد تنهدات القلوب.
أولا نتحدث في الفلسفة،
ثم نتحول إلى الجِدية، فنغنّي.
وتغرق أسماؤنا في الموسيقى.
يتجادل المحبان عن مكان العشاء،
بعدها يتناولان الطعام، ويشربان الخمرة،
ويحدقان بين الشموع
في تفاهم مطلق
عبر لغة النار الصامتة.
لدينا مئات المطاعم لنختار من بينها،
لكن الأهم هو ما يحدث
عند الثمالة.


19. Wounded Bud
 
A wounded bud never heals, it bursts open.
This is why we need another language
for what happens to the heart.

We've been murmuring like seeds,
calling from yolks and cocoons,
incubating irresolute shadows.

But lilies roar from sap, and before they’re born
all beautiful creatures drink the same fire.
Intoxicated with a new name,

Let your ten thousand closed flames
burst into a world.
Get bewildered with the fragrance

of your body's grace.
In your blood are enormous suns.
Call the wounded bud a rose.
 


البرعم الجريح


البرعم الجريح لا يشفى، بل يتفتح!
هكذا نحتاج لغة أخرى لتفتح القلوب.


ما زلنا نتذمر كالبذور،
نهتف من الصفار، من الشرانق،
نحضن بيض ظلال مترددة.


بيد أن الزنابق تزأر من نسغها؛ وقبل أن تولد،
تشرب الكائنات الجميلة النارَ نفسها
مخمورة باسم جديد!


نيرانك المغلقة، ألسنة نيرانك الآلاف،
دعيها تتفجر لتخلق عالماً.
ثم اندهشي وارتبكي
بعبير نعمة الجسد.


في دمك شموس هائلة.
سمّي البرعم الجريح وردة.


20. Morning Meditation



Dawn sitting, I do nothing but listen:
surely the Canada geese will arrive.
It seems I have never heard better news about the universe.

A raindrop allows silence, just before and just after,
to annihilate the world.
A robin pierces the space between suns
because she lets go of her songs as she sings them.

The infinite value of now is a worthless copy
one moment later.
Precious sorrow is a jewel as I taste it,
but a poisoned brooch when I pin it to my chest.

More radiant than diamond is my pain
because I drop it in the pond of forgetting.
Like a hobo, breath wanders, leaving behind
the stories people try to pack in its sack.

From my belly button, I lift up a mysterious cup
of celebration, spilling the stars into my heart.
They ferment into the nectar that made Jesus drunk.

I pour it on the alter of my forehead
and share my secret instruction with the hummingbird:
"Don't wait to be anointed; anoint yourself!"

That is how we become little singers
with invisible wings and luminous ultra-violet throats.

Andromeda, Virgo, twin spiral Hydra nebulae
come down like deer to the crown of my head.
They drink from the wells of my temples
and feast in my wilderness of nerves.

What I am this morning is miraculous medicine,
a healing potion swirled from galaxies in-gathered,
and from glittering perishing moments
of insignificance and surrender.

Suck from my marrow, be not one moment old.
The green stem of my grail is rooted in mycelia.
The more you drink, the more I am replenished
by the myriad deaths of the tiny and eternal.



تأمل صباحي

الفجر يطأ الأرض، لا أفعل سوى أن أصغي
لم يحدث أن سمعت عن أسرار الكون أفضل
مما يخبرني الصمت قبل وبعد قطرة المطر،
ذلك الصمت الذي ينتهي به العالم.

تُغرد أبو الحن، فتخرق أغانيها الفضاء بين الشموس
كيف لا وقد أسلمتها للكون مذ غردت بها...

لا قيمة للآن إلا الآن...
فاللحظة تفقد قيمتها حال تمضي.
وجوهرة هذا الآن: حزني الذي
يثمن حين يُرمى في بحيرة النسيان
يسمم صدري حين يدخل الذاكرة.

هائماً يأتي النَفَس، فيُذهب
بكل ما يحمله عابر السبيل في زاده.

من سرّة بطني أرفع كأس الاحتفال
الغامض، فيريق في قلبي نجوماً
أسكرت المسيح بخمرتها.
أسكبها على مذبح جبيني،
ولا أفشي السر إلا لطائر الهمنغبيرد:
"لا تنتظر أن يباركك أحد؛ بارك نفسك بنفسك!"

هكذا نتحول كائنات صغيرة ذات أجنحة غير مرئية
وحناجر مضيئة بالأشعة ما تحت-الحمراء.

اندروميدا، برج العذراء،
توأم هيدرا نابولا الحلزوني،
انزلوا كغزلان إلى تاج رأسي.
يشربون من آبار معابدي،
ويقيمون الولائم في غابات أعصابي.

فأنا في هذا الصباح
إكسير يجترح المعجزات:
جرعةُ شفاء تكونت
من التفاف المجرات،
ومن تألق اللحظات الفانية
بأشياء تافهة حيناً
وبالتسليم آخر.

اشربوا مني؛ فيعود عمركم إلى الصفر،
فليس لديكم من العمر لحظة واحدة.

متجذر عنق كأسي في الفطريات المظلمة.
كلما ازددتم أخذاً، ازددتُ امتلاء وتجدداً.





21. WHO BEATS MY HEART? (A Prose Poem) 


I can't keep track of my atoms. I don't even know the number of cells in my fingertip. I have no idea how to command my molecules, "Rearrange yourselves for I have just drunk wine!"


At night when I'm sleeping, who breathes me? Who beats my heart, and how much do I owe him?


When I meditate, who orders my battery of neurons to synchronous firing? Who whispers, "chill out" to my adrenal gland?


And when I wake in the morning, who shouts to my pituitary, "Less water, more fire!"

I asked a scientist to explain all this, but he couldn't measure the light-years in a single atom. I asked a guru, but he just mumbled in some lost language full of M's.

How do you expect me to balance my checkbook? I can't even count my electrons, or tell you who performs this body of miracles?

نثرية( )قصيدة قلبي؟ ِدق ُيمن

جزئياتي: ٓامر ٔان يمكن كيف ٔادري ولست ٕاصبعي. رٔاس في اليا الخ عدد ٔاعرف ال ٔانني حتى منها. ٔاتكون التي الذرات ٔاقتفي ٔان يمكننيال للتو!" النبيذ ُت شرب قد فٕاني آلن، ا ّن ترتيبك ِعدن"ٔا   

له؟ مدين ٔانا وبكم قلبي، ُّق ِد ُي من ٔاتنفس؟ يجعلني الذي ذا من الليل، في ٔانامعندما 

الكظرية ّدتي لغ يهمس الذي ذا من الكهربأيية؟ إلشارات ا بٕاطالق تنتظم ٔان العصبية الياي خ بطارية ئامر الذي ذا من ٔاتٔامل،وعندما روعك"؟ من ِّدٔيي 
ه ْن ٔا "

وحنئاستفيقفيالصباح،منذاالذييصرخفيغّدتيالنخامية:"قللياملاء،ؤاكثريالنار!"  


ٔاحد وسٔالت واحدة. ذرة في القابعة الضؤيية السنوات قياس من يتمكن لم لكنه هذا، كل يحدث كيف لي يشرح ٔان العلماء ٔاحدسٔالت املرشدينالهداة،لكنهٔاجابنيبتمتماتغيرمفهومةلمٔابَْنتمنهاسوىحروفميممتكررة. 


عن ٔاخبركم ٔان يمكنني وال ٕالكتروناتي، ٕاحصاء حتى ٔاستطيع ال فٔانا ّ؟! ودفاترالشيكات حساباتي موازنة من ٔاتمكن ٔان ٕاذاً مني تتوقعونكيف ذاالذيُيَكِّون\ينجزفيكللحظةجسداملعجزاتهذا؟!


22. DIALOG


"I will wound you for free."
"But I want to pay for it."
"This will cost you everything."
"I have already given that."
"Then give me your silence,"
Love said.
So I renounced the mind and dove
into the space between thoughts
where I swam all night among moonbeams
with creatures who glowed in namelessness.
Just before dawn, Love severed off my crown
with a scimitar of sweetness, a wave of stillness,
mirage of emptiness, sword of the Prophet,
forever slicing One in Two, for the sake of devotion.
"Take that!" Love said.
"Thank you!" cried Bewilderment,
breaking the silence, opening
the wound again.


حوار

“سوف أجرحكَ مجانا.”
“لكنني أريد أن أدفع ثمن الجرح.”
“سيكلفكَ ذلك كلَّ شيء.”
“لقد أعطيتُ كل شيء من قبل.”
“أعطني إذن صمتك.”
قال الحب.
فتخليت عن فكري وغصتُ
في فضاء ما بين الأفكار
حيث سبحت كل ليلة بين أشعة القمر
مع مخلوقات تتوهج بلا أسماء.
قبيل الفجر، اجتث الحب تاج رأسي
بسيف من حلاوة، بموجة من سكون،
بسراب الفراغ، بسيف النبي
الذي، إلى الأبد، يقطع الأحد اثنين لكي نختبر التفاني.
"خذ ذلك!" قال الحب.
“شكرا لك!” أجاب الذهول باكياً،
فكسر إذ ذاك صمته، وانفتح
الجرح من جديد.



23.  Another kind of love

This is another kind of love,
made from the same grapes
but aged in a darker place, longer,
in barrels of oak from woods
more wild than the garden,
too strong for Jesus to serve
Peter and the twelve...
He saves it for Mary, his Nadeema,
to celebrate the death
of every law but one:
"Become your longing."
With this wine he casts out demons
and makes her drunk with prayer.
The garland he hangs on her shoulders
breaks with the whirl of their dancing.
Enormous blossoms spill
from her throat to her loins,
like heavenly worlds whose
devas, now free to descend,
fill her countless unborn children
with glory.



نوع آخر من الحب

هو نوع آخر من الحب،
مصنوع من العناقيد نفسها
لكنه معتق في مكان أعتم، لفترة أطول،
في براميل من خشب البلوط من غابة
بَرِّية أكثر من الحديقة.
أقوى من أن يقدمه يسوع لبطرس
والاثني عشر، فهو يحفظه لمريم،
نديمته، ليحتفل وإياها بموت كل القوانين
عدا واحداً:
"صِرْ توقك."
بهذا النبيذ كان يطرد الشياطين
ويجعلها سكرى بالصلاة.
والإكليل الذي علقه على كتفيها
سقط بدوران رقصتهما.
أزهار هائلة فاضت من حنجرتها
إلى حقويها، مثل عوالم السماء،
حيث الملائكة اللاتي غدون الآن أحراراً للنزول،
ملأن بالمجد أولادها
أولادها الذين لا يعدوا ولا يحصوا
أولادها الذين لم يولدوا بعد.



24. Lady of the Sky


We all want to see the smile of our first parents
when they fell in love.

The sun is waiting, she will not breathe out
 until she sees That on your face!

Then she will become your partner,
the Lady of the Sky.

You have a certain work to offer her,
the work of your joy.

No one but you can do it.
That is how you support her.

Where else would the Lady find light?
Discover your task, do only That.

Speak only That, love only That.
You will never weary of saying

Thank You, and the Lady of the Sky
will bear you children, countless seeds

in every blossom, countless flowers
in every seed, ten thousand gold

and blue petals from one hollow root.
Surely the stem of your smile

undulates through still green waters
in muddy secret forest pools,

the lotus ponds of your flesh.
This kind of radiance comes from the belly.

Where one breath pours into another,
offer all your darkness.



سيدة السماء

كلنا نتمنى لو أننا نرى ابتسامة والدينا
حين وقعا في الحب.

تقف الشمس أيضاً تنتظر: لن تزفرَ
حتى ترى ذلك على وجهكِ!

حينها تصبح شريكتَكِ،
سيدةُ السماء.

وإذ ذاك يتوجب عليكِ أن تقدمي لها عملاً،
هذا العمل هو فرحكِ.

لا أحد غيركِ يستطيع القيام به.
وهي الطريقة الوحيدة التي يمكنكِ أن تدعميها بها.

لولا ذلك أين ستجد السيدةُ النور؟
اكتشفي مهمَّتكِ، افعلي ذلك فقط.

تكلمي عن ذلك فقط. أحبّي ذلك فقط.
عندها لن يُرهقكِ قول

 الشكر، وسيدة السماء
سوف تحمل لك الأطفال، وبذوراً لا تعد ولا تحصى

في كل برعم، عدد لا يحصى من الزهور
وفي كل بذرة، عشرة آلاف بتلة

ذهبية زرقاء من جذر واحد أجوف.
هو بالتأكيد جذع ابتسامتك

تتموج خلال مياه خضراء ساكنة
في برك الغابات السرية الموحلة،

برك اللوتس من لحمكِ.
هذا النوع من الإشعاع يأتي من البطن.

حيث ينصب نفَس في آخر،
قدّمي هناك كل ظلمتكِ.


25. Trinity

In the beginning
the Father gazed


into the mirror of the Spirit
and saw Christ.


That mirror was the womb
of eternal silence,


for even God is mothered
by a mystery.


Then Christ gazed in the mirror
and saw You.

You too were born
of that Joy!



الثالوث


في البدء،
حدّق الآب

في مرآة الروح
ورأى المسيح.

تلك المرآة هي رحم
الصمت السرمدي،

ذلك أن الله أيضاً ولد من
غموض.

ثم حدّق المسيح في المرآة
ورآكِ.
أنتِ أيضاً ولدتِ




26. Her


Her voice contains the snow
falling through darkness
like frozen tears and
stars that have not
yet been born.
Her name is Silence.
The tears melt and
worlds appear
greening, whirling, whole.
But why say "her"?
Because there is a Womb
that heals and creates
all things again
without a Word.




في صوتها ثلج  
يتساقط في الظلام
كدموع متجمدة
ونجوم لم تولد بعد.
اسمها الصمت.
تذوب الدموع
وتظهر العوالم،
مخضوضرةً، دائرةً في دوّامة، كاملة.
لكن لماذا نقول "هي"؟
لأن الخليقة لها رحَم
يشفي ويخلق
الأشياء من جديد
من دون الكلمة.



27. Where The Bees Have Gone

The bee has returned for more,
but not here.
Once there was honey in this world,
but not now.
God only drinks what spills.
Somewhere the heart flowers with compassion.
That is where the giver is drunk with giving,
each stranger welcome as a bride,
and there is sweetness for wanderers.
Every stem becomes a cup,
every mouth a yearning,
every pilgrim finds the heart of the poppy.
Our world could be like this again
if we remembered how to spill.


أين ذهب النحل؟
==========
وعاد النحل ليطلب المزيد،
لكن ليس هنا.
فقد كان هناك عسل في هذا العالم،
لكن ليس الآن.
فالله لا يشرب إلا ما يفيض.
هناك حيث يزهر القلب بالرحمة.
حيث يَسكَر المُعطِي بالعطاء،
ويُرحَّب بكل غريب كأنه عروس،
حيث يجد التائهون حلاوة.
إذ يصبح كل جذع كوب رحيق،
وكل فم توق حبيب،
ويجد كل باحث قلب الزهرة.
سيغدو عالمنا هكذا من جديد
إذا ما تذكرنا كيف نفيض.



28. Her Voice


Her voice contains the snow
falling through darkness
like frozen tears and
stars that have not
yet been born.
Her name is Silence.
The tears melt
and worlds appear,
greening, whirling, whole.
But why say "her"?
Because creation has a womb
that heals and makes
all things new again
without a Word.

في صوتها ثلج 
يتساقط في الظلام
كدموع متجمدة
ونجوم لم تولد بعد.
اسمها الصمت.
تذوب الدموع
وتظهر العوالم،
تخضوضر، تدور في دوّامة، تكتمل.
ولكن لماذا نخاطبها كأنثى؟
لأن الخليقة لها رحَم
يشفي ويخلق
الأشياء من جديد
من دون الكلمة.




Translated in Ainab's convent,
Lebanon, by Dana Chamseddine