Today's Beautiful Gem: `Resurrection' by Hafiz (Shams-ud-din of Shiraz, born in 1320), translated by Paul Smith.

"Where is news of Your arrival so that life I won't have to bear?
I am the Bird of Paradise, I'll leave world's cage then and there.
By Your love I swear that if You should call to me, Your slave,
I would never again desire mastery of this world or any other.
Lord, promise to pour a shower from Your cloud of guidance,
Before I'm blown away like a handful of dust by the wind's air.
Idol, sweet melodious mover, arise and show Your tall shape;
I will rise and my desire for life and the world will disappear.
Although I'm old, one night take me into Your close embrace,
So with dawn I may arise from Your embrace: young, forever.
Don't sit at my tomb unless there is wine and also the musician;
So that by Your call I'll rise, dance, and Your fragrance share.
Don't believe that from the dust of the entrance of Your street,
Sky's tyranny or time's violence can take me away from there.
On the day that I'm due to die let me see You for one breath,
And then like Hafiz I'll give away life and the world forever."

Note: About Hafiz, one of the greatest Sufi poets ever lived, Goethe said: "In his poetry Hafiz has inscribed undeniable truth indelibly... Hafiz has no peer!" Edward Fitzgerald, translator of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyats expressed his appreciation thus: "The best Musician of Words." Alternate meanings for some words used are as follows: sky = Fate; slave = lover; wine = truth, love, grace, knowledge; wind = misfortune.

Om s'aantih: Peace! - J. K. Mohana Rao

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