"Come O Thou Wakeful.."

"When the heart is hard and parched up, come upon me with a shower of mercy.

When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song.

When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides shutting me out from beyond, come to me, my lord of silence, with thy peace and rest.

When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner, break open the door, my king, and come with the ceremony of a king.

When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust, O thou holy one, thou wakeful, come with thy light and thy thunder."

-- Rabindranath Tagore

Confessio

Terlambat aku mencintai-Mu, oh Keindahan kekal yang selalu baru.. 

Kusadari, Engkau selalu hadir di dalam, dan aku ada di luar kehadiran-Mu.. Engkau selalu hadir namun kuabaikan, karena aku selalu mencari-Mu di dalam keindahan ciptaan-Mu.. Aku terpisah jauh dari kehadiran-Mu, karena kesengsem oleh karya cipta-Mu.. Engkau terus memanggil, menembusi ketulianku.. Engkau memancarkan cahaya terang-Mu, yang melebihi terang matahari hingga membutakan aku.. Engkau menebarkan keharuman yang kuhirup disetiap nafasku.. Aku  mencicipi dan mengenyam kehadiran-Mu, namun aku selalu mengeluh lapar dan haus.. Engkau telah menjamahku, dan diriku dikobarkan oleh kerinduan akan kedamaian-Mu..

Terlambat aku mencintai-Mu, oh Keindahan kekal yang selalu baru.. 

Kucari wajah-Mu, dimana Engkau bersembunyi oh kekasih jiwaku.. Engkau yang bertahta dalam Puri batinku, yang Engkau bangun untuk persemayaman-Mu.. Tak dapat kubayangkan kehadiran-Mu yang cemerlang.. Aku telusuri batinku, ingatanku dan aku menemukan pintu masuk ke dalam Puri cahaya-Mu.. Setiapkali aku mengenang-Mu, Engkau telah menunggu di sana, karena Engkau sumber dari segala peristiwa hidup, asal usul semua yang telah terjadi.. Dalam ingatan masa lampauku, dalam ingatan segala mahkluk, kutemui Engkau, oh Keindahan kekal yang selalu baru..

Engkau menuntun diriku menemui kebenaran sejati melalui ingatan, "Pada  mulanya adalah "Kata", "Kata" itu bersama-sama dengan Keindahan kekal yang selalu baru, "Kata" itu adalah "Aku".. Dalam "Aku"-Mu ada hidup dan hidup itu adalah terang jiwaku.. Dan kini, "Kata" itu telah menjadi kekasih jiwaku.."

"Faith Embrace Illusion"

"Those who in the name of Faith embrace illusion,
kill and are killed.
Even the atheist gets God's blessings-
Does not boast of his religion;

With reverence he lights the lamp of Reason
And pays his homage not to scriptures,
But to the good in man.

The bigot insults his own religion
When he slays a man of another faith.
Conduct he judges not in the light of Reason;
In the temple he raises the blood-stained banner
And worships the devil in the name of God.

All that is shameful and barbarous through the Ages,
Has found a shelter in their temples-
Those they turn into prisons;
O, I hear the trumpet call of Destruction!
Time comes with her great broom
Sweeping all refuse away.

That which should make man free,
They turn into fetters;
That which should unite,
They turn into sword;
That which should bring love
From the fountain of the Eternal,
They turn into prison

And with its waves they flood the world.
They try to cross the river
In a bark riddled with holes;
And yet, in their anguish, whom do they blame?

O Lord, breaking false religion,
Save the blind!
Break! O break
The alter that is drowned in blood.

Let your thunder strike
Into the prison of false religion,

And bring to this unhappy land
The light of Knowledge."

--Rabindranath Tagore

"Tripping Over Joy"

"What is the difference
Between your experience of Existence
And that of a saint?

The saint knows
That the spiritual path
Is a sublime chess game with God

And that the Beloved
Has just made such a Fantastic Move

That the saint is now continually
Tripping over Joy
And bursting out in Laughter
And saying, “I Surrender!”

Whereas, my dear,
I am afraid you still think
You have a thousand serious moves"

-- Shams-al-Din Mohammad Hafiz (I Heard God Laughing)

"Reason"

"The guest is inside you, and also inside me;
you know the sprout is hidden inside the seed.
We are all struggling; none of us has gone far.
Let your arrogance go, and look around inside.

The blue sky opens out farther and farther,
the daily sense of failure goes away,
the damage I have done to myself fades,
a million suns come forward with light,
when I sit firmly in that world.

I hear bells ringing that no one has shaken,
inside "love" there is more joy than we know of,
rain pours down, although the sky is clear of clouds,
there are whole rivers of light.
The universe is shot through in all parts by a single sort of love.
How hard it is to feel that joy in all our four bodies!

Those who hope to be reasonable about it fail.
The arrogance of reason has separated us from that love.
With the word "reason" you already feel miles away."

-Kabir (The Kabir book: Forty-four of the ecstatic poems of Kabir)

"Only Thee"

That I want thee, only thee---let my heart repeat without end.
All desires that distract me, day and night,
are false and empty to the core.

As the night keeps hidden in its gloom the petition for light,
even thus in the depth of my unconsciousness rings the cry
---`I want thee, only thee'.

As the storm still seeks its end in peace
when it strikes against peace with all its might,
even thus my rebellion strikes against thy love
and still its cry is
---`I want thee, only thee'.

— Rabindranath Tagore

"Return to the Root"

“For ages you have come and gone
courting this delusion.
For ages you have run from the pain
and forfeited the ecstasy.
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

Although you appear in earthly form
Your essence is pure Consciousness.
You are the fearless guardian
of Divine Light.
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

When you lose all sense of self
the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish.
Lose yourself completely,
Return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

You descended from Adam, by the pure Word of God,
but you turned your sight
to the empty show of this world.
Alas, how can you be satisfied with so little?
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

Why are you so enchanted by this world
when a mine of gold lies within you?
Open your eyes and come ---
Return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

You were born from the rays of God's Majesty
when the stars were in their perfect place.
How long will you suffer from the blows
of a nonexistent hand?
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

You are a ruby encased in granite.
How long will you decieve Us with this outer show?
O friend, We can see the truth in your eyes!
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

After one moment with that glorious Friend
you became loving, radiant, and ecstatic.
Your eyes were sweet and full of fire.
Come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

Shams-e Tabriz, the King of the Tavern
has handed you an eternal cup,
And God in all His glory is pouring the wine.
So come! Drink!
Return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

Soul of all souls, life of all life - you are That.
Seen and unseen, moving and unmoving - you are That.
The road that leads to the City is endless;
Go without head and feet
and you'll already be there.
What else could you be? - you are That.”

― Rumi

"A Thirsty Fish"

I don't get tired of you. 

Don't grow weary
of being compassionate toward me.!

All this thirst equipment
must surely be tired of me,
the water jar, the water carrier.

I have a thirsty fish in me
that can never find enough
of what it's thirsty for.!

Show me the way to the ocean.!
Break these half-measures,
these small containers.

All this fantasy and grief.

Let my house be drowned in the wave
that rose last night in the courtyard
hidden in the center of my chest.

Joseph fell like the moon into my well.
The harvest I expected was washed away.
But no matter.

A fire has risen above my tombstone hat.
I don't want learning, or dignity, or respectability.

I want this music and this dawn
and the warmth of your cheek against mine.

The grief-armies assemble,
but I'm not going with them.

This is how it always is
when I finish a poem.

A great silence comes over me,
and I wonder why I ever thought
to use language."

— Rumi