Because I Cannot Sleep

Because I cannot sleep
I make music at night.
I am troubled by the one
whose face has the colour 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 give culture to a thousand cultures,
You who are faceless but have a thousand faces,
O Love, You who shape the faces,
Of Turks, Europeans and Zanzibaris,
give me a glass from Your bottle,
or a handful of bheng from Your branch.
_{Rumi, as quoted in The Rumi Collection edited by Kabir Helminski}