By day and night forever now
    I burn in Love’s hot furnace breath,
Although there gather on my brow
    The cold and heavy sweats of death.

And ever in my home in Hind
    At dawn’s first light, at evenfall,
I hear upon the desert wind
    The Prophet of Arabia call.

Amir.

VI.

The light is in mine eyes,
Within my heart I feel Thy joy arise,
From gate to inmost shrine
This palace of my soul is utterly Thine.

O longing seeking eyes,
He comes to you in many a varied guise,
If Him you cannot find
The shame be yours, O eyes that are so blind.

I as His mirror glow
Bearing His image in my heart, and know
That glowing clear in His
The image of my heart reflected is.

O drink the Wine of Love,
And in the Assembly of Enlightened move,
Let not the darkness dim
Fall like a curtain ’twixt thy soul and Him.

Who gives away his soul
Forgets his petty self and wins the whole,
Losing himself outright
He finds himself in the Eternal Light.

Crazy art thou, Amir,
To wait before His gate in hope and fear;
For never in thy pain
Shall He yield up thy ravished heart again.

Amir.

VII.

How can I dare profess
I am the lover whom Thou dost prefer! 
Thou art the essence of all loveliness,
And I Thy very humblest worshipper.

Upon the Judgment Day
So sweet Thy mercy shall to sinners prove,
That envying them even the Saints shall say—­
Would we were sinners thus to know Thy love!

When in the quest for Thee
The heart shall seek among the pious throng,
Thy voice shall call—­If Thou desirest me
Among the sinners I have dwelt for long.

At the great Reckoning
Mighty the wicked who before Thy throne
Shall come for judgment; little can I bring,
No store of good nor evil deeds I own.

    Among the thorns am I
A thorn, among the roses am a rose,
Friend among friends in love and amity,
    Foe among foes.

Amir.

VIII.

I shall not try to flee the sword of Death,
    Nor fearing it a watchful vigil keep,
It will be nothing but a sigh, a breath,
    A turning on the other side to sleep.

Through all the close entanglements of earth
    My spirit shaking off its bonds shall fare
And pass, and rise in new unfettered birth,
    Escaping from this labyrinth of care.

Within the mortal caravan-serai
    No rest and no abiding place I know,
I linger here for but a fleeting day,
    And at the morrow’s summoning I go.

What are these bonds that try to shackle me? 
    Through all their intricate chains my way I find,
I travel like a wandering melody
    That floats untamed, untaken, on the wind.