Hafiz - The sword drop from men's hands

Fu re d’Egitto ma non dell’India (Alessandro Magno).

 I have come into this world to see this:

the sword drop from men's hands
even at the height of their arc of anger
because we have finally realized
there is just one flesh to wound
and it is the Beloved's.

I have come into this world to see this:

all creatures hold hands as we pass through
this miraculous existence we share on the way
to an even greater being of soul,
a being of just ecstatic light,
forever entwined and at play with Him.

I have come into this world to hear this:

every song the earth has sung
since it was conceived in the Divine's womb
and began spinning from His wish,
every song by wing and fin and hoof,
every song by hill and field and tree and woman and child,
every song of stream and rock,
every song of tool and lyre and flute,
every song of gold and emerald and fire,
every song the heart should cry
with magnificent dignity to know itself as God:
for all other knowledge will leave us
again in want and aching -
only imbibing the glorious Sun will complete us.

I have come into this world to experience this:

men so true to love they would rather die
before speaking an unkind word,
men so true their lives are His covenant -
the promise of hope.

I have come into this world to see this:

the sword drop from men's hands
even at the height of their arc of rage
because we have finally realized
there is just one flesh we can wound.

 from Love Poems from God:
Twelve Sacred voices from East and West
edited by Daniel Ladinsky