Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Another Favorite

When I am with you,
we stay up all night.
When you're not here,
I can't go to sleep.
Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them.

The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you,
not knowinghow blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.
We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute of eternity.
We are pain and what cures pain, both.
We arethe sweet cold water
and the jar that pours.
I want to hold you close like a lute,
so we can cry out with loving.

You would rather throw stones at a mirror?
I am your mirror,
and here are the stones.

--The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

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