mountains walk and dance because of love

tim mckenna / julian herbrig

 

If you try to

pour the whole ocean into a pot,

it doesn’t work. You can’t put enough in to

satisfy even one human being for a single day.

The eye of a greedy person is the same: always full,

never satisfied. Only when an oyster becomes

content and stops trying to drink

the whole sea can it settle

down and make a

pearl.

 

Whoever

is torn by spiritual love

is cleansed of greed – this and every

other weakness. Be happy with this love!

It’s a very good deal – the cure for

all pain, the medicine for our

arrogance, the great

teacher.

 

Bodies

made of earth ascend

to heaven because of love.

Mountains walk and dance

because of love. Mount Sinai got

drunk with love, and Moses’s

donkey exploded

into light!

 

Like nay,

the reed flute, I have

stories to tell you. Anyone separated

from the Friend has hundreds of stories, too,

but no tongue to tell them. If you let the flowers wilt

and the garden die, there aren’t any more

songs from bolbol, the

nightingale.

 

This

whole universe, every

thing and not-thing, is the Beloved.

The lover, just a reflection of that. It’s God’s face

that’s alive, not the mirror! If a person doesn’t have the

courage to love, he’s a bird without wings. No one

can be conscious without the light of the

Friend, but with that love, you can

see truth.

 

If

your mirror

isn’t reflecting the

Beloved, then

polish it.

 

Jalal ad-Din Rumi

translated by Brian Browne Walker, Behzad Ghorbani, & Shahla Ghorbani