Rumi: The Voice of Love

Every moment the voice of Love
is coming from left and right.
We are bound for heaven:
Who has a mind to sight seing?

We have been in heaven,
we have been friends
of the angels;
Thither, Sire, let us return,
for that is our country.

I was on that day
when the Names were not,
Nor any sign of existence
endowed with name,

By me Names and Named
were brought to view
On the day
when there was not
"I and We",
For the sign,
the tip of the beloved's curl
became a centre of revelation;

As yet the tip of that curl was not.
Cross and Christians,
from end to end,
I surveyed;
He was not on the Cross,
I went to idol temple,
to the ancient pagoda;
No trace was visible there.

I went to the mountains of
Herat and Candahar;
I looked;
He was not in
that hill-and-dale.

I gaze into my own heart;
There I saw Him;
He was nowhere else.