THE LOVE OF SUCH A ONE

VI.

O thou who art my soul's comfort in the season of sorrow,

O thou who art my spirit's treasure in the bitterness of death!

That which the imagination has not conceived, that

which the understanding has not seen,

Visiteth my soul from thee, hence in worship I turn toward thee 

By thy grace I keep fixed on eternity my amorous gaze,

Except, O king, the pomps that perish lead me astray.

The favour of that one, who brings glad tidings of thee,

Even without thy summons, is sweeter in mine ear that songs.

In the prostrations of prayer thought of thee, O lord,

Is necessary and binding on me as the seven verses.

To thee belongs mercy and intercession for the sin of infidels:

As regards me, thou art chief and principal of the stony-hearted.

If a never-ceasing bounty should offer kingdoms,

If a hidden treasure should set before me all that is,

I would bend down with my soul, I would lay my face in the dust,

I would say, Of all these the love of such a one for me!'

Eternal life, me thinks, is the time of union,

Because time, for me, hath no place there.

Life is the vessels, union the clear draught in them;

Without thee what does the pain of the vessels avail me?

I had twenty thousand desires ere this;

In passion for him not even (care of) my safety remained.

By the help of his grace I am become safe, because

The unseen king saith to me, Thou art the soul of the world.'

The essence of the meaning of "He" has filled my heart and soul;

"Au" cries the street-dog, and neither have I third or second".

The body, at the time of union with him, paid no regard to the spirit;

Tho' incorporeal, he became visible unto me.

I aged with his affliction, but when Tabriz 

You name, all my youth comes back to me.

-"Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz"

Edited and translated by Reynold A. Nicholson

Source Rumi ORG

You think you found your destination I

You know something?

I just do not care

I do not care too much for now

You're so far away, you live so far

To live within the walls of the Ottoman Empire

And enslaved ruins of Constantinople

I do not care if you believe in Allah or in your luxury watch

You know, I really think I can stand it,

Only by seeing the tone spreads on your skin in winter clouds

You know me and I know it's you

You know that your hand is not as warm as mine.

You can believe and strive to lie,

You can even convince occasionally

You have found your destination and your belief is fulfilled

You'll have a quiet life, a great relaxing holiday

A future without surprises, without war and weapons

A rest at home, across the Atlantic

In the evenings where you can breathe the sea salt

While sipping your favorite cup of tea

But I know when the sun sets each evening

You feel that your world is eternally off

I know you've said a thousand times I have found that both wanted

You've found now that you've seen after so many years in front of your eyes and walk out of your hand. But you can not fool your limpid soul that shakes the roots of my eyes from the first loneliness we met without lamps. You have not found anything

You did not find anything

The great lighthouse does not shine in front of you every evening and every morning,

You know that's not true,

You know that every time the sun comes off,

You know it's a habit that has spread through your veins

You know I note that you have the mirror in the bathroom that you use only,

You know it is visible after the steam and splashes after simulating a glass snorted

You know it's there, the look of anguish that lies at the bottom of a swamp

Where you could not plant anything, which has not grown any flower

You want to believe, think sometimes when she pampers you know, but you know that is not true

You know that is not the level that you want to elevate your soul.

You know in your sleep you've been far from Istanbul and far from Turkey,

And we walk life beyond East and West,

And all libraries become short of words

Faced with all we have and we must tell each other

You know I really have found that by the end of the beginning

There is a no nonsense it has been written in our hands

I know it's you and you know me

You know I did not need to meet you to recognize

You know that only my footprint is the key to cross the portal

Floating forms that unlocks The Garden of Earthly Delights

And open the cube where life stays

You know all you have is just enough

And it is even less significant, and know that all experiences to date

They are not not even the veil of nothing compared to that moment when you and I decided to embrace the same fate and covering it with sand,

You can get used to living this lie

To have a heritage, a legacy and a hyphen

A dull with fine suits the essence of your flesh

A dark look after your tinted windows

But thou shalt not find oblivion.

I know you still can not find what you are looking for,

I know you've indicated date and time for your visit to the church,

I know you tell yourself you're in love

But you know you have not found at all

What you're looking for

And longing and missing

Since you have memories of yearning

Press phtotograph of Kenan Imirzalioglu and Sinem Kobel, modified by the blog author, 2015.

Milza López, 2015

From upcoming Book, Untitled.

Exclusive content for Blogger.

Did Your Father Ever Die? - Cemel Sureya

Did your father ever die? 

Mine died once. I went blind 

He has been washed up. 

got and taken away

I never expect this from my father 

I became blind 

Did you ever go to a hammam? 

One of the lights went off  when I was there

One of my eyes went off I went blind 

There was a round shaped sky on top 

It was blue all over I became blind 

The stones the hammam stones 

The stones were so bright like a mirror 

I saw half of my face in the stones 

It was like something like something bad 

I wouldn’t expect this from my face 

I became blind 

Did you ever cry when you were soapy? 

Cemal Süreya, 1958 

Poem also appears in Ezel television series, 

Episode 62

"PSYCHE"

I'm looking for you in the woods tonight, I'm looking
Looking for you in my flashlight, I'm searching
From in the high or down the ocean
And I face myself in reason
Gain the wolf
Gain the wolf

Conjure me as a child
Slipping down a webside
Stretch up I cannot reach him
Jumping up they drag him from the water

I watch them march him into life
I watch them take him from the pale
Into the sky for your eagle eye
The sun seeds a sickle and a scythe

Ridicule they won't allow
Quench abuse and let love flower
Rip the cage out of your chest
Let the chaos rule the rest

Show without showing
What you know without knowing
Twigs snap eye / I catch no canoe only you and me
Alone on the old tea hope sea

Dissolving who we are
Call out for yesterdays destiny come 
We're on a foreign shore

It was your mark of falling
I was the car still running
And will you call and be assured for life
And if you feel it you will fly
The sun should have been with me

When I was set to fall in
As I was set to fall in
As I was set to fall in

As I was set to fall in

As I was set to fall in

As I was set to fall in

As I was set to fall in

As I was set to fall in

As I was set to fall in

As I was set to fall in

As I was set to fall in

As I was set to fall in

As I was set to fall in

Photograph by Milza López. taken in Santiago, Chile. 2014.

Lyrics written by Grantley Marshall and Robert del Naja

Song version performed by Massive Attack

To See Him Again (Gabriela Mistral)

Never, never again?
Not on nights filled with quivering stars,
or during dawn's maiden brightness
or afternoons of sacrifice?

Or at the edge of a pale path
that encircles the farmlands,
or upon the rim of a trembling fountain,
whitened by a shimmering moon?

Or beneath the forest's
luxuriant, raveled tresses
where, calling his name,
I was overtaken by the night?
Not in the grotto that returns
the echo of my cry?

Oh no. To see him again,
it would not matter where
in heaven's deadwater
or inside the boiling vortex,
under serene moons or in bloodless fright!

To be with him...
every springtime and winter,
united in one anguished knot
around his bloody neck! 

Gabriela Mistral, 

deity of poetry

...E C L I P S E...

He didn't care about nothing

but he wanted it all,

He dragged me into the holy war

and snatched my hate away.

There is sunset in the plenty day

with a black moon

and clouds of stigma,

his steps over my land

and and his contempt without exit.

In the haze undone

his gaze is poking;

It is lifeless goodbye 

It is trap of gold;

consummate vigil

into the color of those eyes.

It's not afternoon, It's not night,

It's not day or tomorrow,

there is no blood in the car

of the battered woman.

Whispers are falling

as incomplete rain,

palpitations of meat

from homicide on the planet.

Over me, over him,

Eclipse's revenge;

under his feet:

fear of matrices.

Who prays for him

as buried star,

crying more than that time,

while she was crucified?

It is the eclipse of an angel and a devil

stealing light from forces,

walking on the steps of boyfriend,

pursuing an agonizing truce.

Extracted from "The Poisoned Arrow and Other Texts",

Milza López, 2007.

Close your eyes

Close your celestial eyes ,

and sleep in melancholy.

but before we leave, I want you to know that the whispers

of illusions will die without agony.

Before the contemptuous silence of yours,

that will shut seasoned

the sound of our love,

I want to hear the latest murmur

your cold heart.

So it's welcome now

the eternal solitude.

This is the night of the end I sense,

I can only say goodbye

and sleep without insomnia;

I can only say goodbye and break me

with tears of icelandic affluent...

Extracted from "The Poisoned Arrow and Other Texts",

Milza López, 2007.