That moon, undreamt even by sky, returns
Bringing a fire no water can quench.
The temple of my body and my soul
Are made drunken and desolate by his love.
When the tavern-keeper became my soul-mate
My blood turned to wine, my heart to kebab.
When the eye is consumed by thought of him
A voice arrives: Well done, O Flagon. Brave, wine!
Loves fingers drag up, root and stem,
Every flower where Love's rays fall.
When my heart noticed Love's sea, suddenly
It escaped me and leapt in, crying, "Save me!"
Tabriz's glory, the face of the Wild One is
The Sun whose track all cloudy hearts follow.
Version by James Cowan
"Rumi's Divan of Shems of Tabriz, Selected Odes"
Element Books Limited 1997
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