Vast Multitudes are Within Rumi, the Poet

Because I Cannot Sleep

Because I cannot sleep,

I make music at night.

I am troubled by the one,

whose face has the color of spring flowers.

I have neither sleep nor patience,

neither a good reputation nor disgrace.

A thousand robes of wisdom are gone.

All my good manners have moved a thousand miles away.

The heart and the mind are left angry with each other.

The stars and the moon are envious of each other.

Because of this alienation,

the physical universe is getting tighter and tighter.

The moon says,’ How long will I remain suspended without a sun?’

Without love’s jewel inside of me,

let the bazaar of my existence be destroyed stone by stone.

O love, You who have been called by a thousand names

You who know how to pour the wine,

into the chalice of the body,

You who give culture to a thousand cultures,

You who are faceless but have a thousand faces

Of Turks, Europeans, and Zanzibaris,

give me a glass from your bottle.

Or a handful of being from your branch,

Remove the cork once more.

Then we’ll see a thousand chiefs prostrate themselves,

And a circle of ecstatic troubadours will play.

Then the addict will be freed of craving.

And will be resurrected,

and stand in awe till judgement day.

God pours wine in the poet's chalice body. What a beautiful metaphor. Sufi poet Rumi is world famous for his mystical, revelatory poems.

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