Hafiz - When your soul Begins to awaken

What happens when your soul
Begins to awaken
Your eyes and your heart
And the cells of your body
To the great Journey of Love?

First there is wonderful laughter
And probably precious tears
And a hundred sweet promises
And those heroic vows no one can ever keep.

But still God is delighted and amused
You once tried to be a saint.

What happens when your soul
Begins to awaken
To our deep need to love
And serve the Friend?
O the Beloved will send you
One of His wonderful, wild companions -
Like Hafiz.

Only that Illumined One
Who keeps
Seducing the formless into form
Had the charm to win my heart.
Only a Perfect One
Who is always
Laughing at the word Two
Can make you know of love.

The Truth has opened so many mysteries
that I can no longer call myself
a Christian, Hindu, Muslim, or Jew.
I have learned
so much from God
that I can no longer call myself
a man, a woman, angel, or even a pure soul.
Love has befriended Hafiz so completely
It has freed me
from every concept and image
my mind has ever known.

* translated by Daniel Ladinsky