You Shall Not See Me

A poem from Rumi : A Bridge To The Soul – Journeys Into The Music and Silence of The Heart

You are rest for my soul,
a surprising joy for my bitterness.

Imagination has never imagined
what you give to me.

The sound of someone whistling in the street,
or asking questions. If that person
is bringing word from you,
those sounds are worth more
than all the world’s poetry.

There is nothing I want but your presence.
In friendship, time dissolves.

Life is a cup. This connection
is pure wine. What else are cups for?

I used to have twenty thousand
different desires.

The unseen king once said on Sinai
You shall not see me.

But even though he said that he was not,
I have filled the essence
of that he with my soul.

The Christian trinity, the Zoroastrian
light-dark, I absorb them all.

Though my body has not noticed,
union has begun to see a new way to be.

Grown old with grief and longing,
when someone says Tabriz,
I am young again.

Ah - what longing! Especially the parts where I have give emphasis. This new anthology of new Rumi poetry was published in 2007, in commemoration with Rumi’s 800th birthday. 2007 was also celebrated as the International Year of Rumi. This anthology was reviewed by Yasmin Ahmad in The Star some time back.

No one expresses the longing and yearning of the heart like Rumi does. Reading it again and again simply makes you love it more.