There’s No Easy Way To Union – Abdur Rahman’s Corner
Peace, one and all…
Their gaze turns dust into gold –
May they blink in my direction.
Hide your need from accusing doctors,
a remedy may yet arrive from the storehouse of the Invisible.
When the beloved won’t remove the veil from his face,
why do people dream up such fantasies?
Since the beauty of the world to come lies beyond both
drunkenness and abstinence, trust everything to grace.
Never leave knowledge of God. In the excess of love
they knowers do business with those they know.
Drink up! Better a hundred sins behind the veil
than the open worship of hypocrites.
The coat-of-many-colours, fragrant with my Joseph
was torn and stained by the envious.
In this life, crimes and outrage are done behind the veil.
What will happen when the veil is torn?
When the hard rock weeps at my eloquence, don’t be surprised;
the master speaks words from deep in the heart.
Hafiz, there’s no easy way to lasting union,
Kings rarely condescend to beggars.
Hafiz Shirazi, Diwan, trans by J. Einboden & J. Slater
