Love isn’t the work of the tender and the gentle;
Love is the work of wrestlers.
The one who becomes a server of lovers is really a fortunate sovereign.
Don’t ask anyone about Love;
ask Love alone about Love.
Love is a cloud that scatters pearls.
Love doesn’t need me to translate ; it translates for itself.
If you journey to the seventh heaven,
Love is a useful ladder.
Wherever a caravan journeys, Love is its qiblah*
May this universe not deceive you, waylaying you from Love,
for this universe comes from you.
Let’s go! Close your mouth like mother of pearl.
Be silent, for this tongue of yours is the enemy of the soul.
O child, Shams of Tabriz has arrived;
the soul is full of joy
for the time has come to join in union with the sun.
Rumi
* The direction or orientation for prayer, more usually Mecca
Translation : Refik Algan and Camille Helminski
