Source: Love’s
Ripening: Rumi on the Heart’s Journey (2008), Translated by Kabir Helminsky
& Ahmad Rezwani, pp.94-95.
There’s a street where the Beautiful One
is known to take a stroll.
When a certain radiance is noticed
through the latticed windows
of that neighborhood,
People whisper, The Beloved
must be near.
Listen: open a window to God
and breathe. Delight yourself
with what comes through that opening.
The work of love is to create
a window in the heart,
for the breast is illumined
by the beauty of the Beloved.
Gaze incessantly on that Face!
Listen, this is in your power, my friend!
Find a way to your innermost secret.
Let no other perception distract you.
You, yourself, possess the elixir,
so rub it into your skin,
and by this alchemy
your inner enemies will become friends.
And as you are made beautiful,
the Beautiful One will become your own,
the intimate of your once lonely spirit.
