English
On Love
From the first day those trouble-bearing eyes
set my soul on fire with love for her,
I let go of my heart, my life, my youth;
I gave up every hope of living.
I grew so mad with love for her
that in my madness I became a legend.
Reason kept saying: you dazed, sick fool,
keep the pain of her guarded deep in your soul.
If you must give your heart, give it to her,
and surrender it to whatever humiliation comes.
Sometimes blaze up with love like a candle,
sometimes burn with love like a moth.
Do not worry if your liver fills with blood,
for from the fire of the heart the eyes fill with tears.
Be ruined by love, for then you are made whole;
be love's slave, for then you are set free.
The story of love has no ending;
reason has no desire but to love.
Drink nothing from this world but the cup of love;
remember nothing but the tale of love.
A heart that feels no love for a beloved,
do not call it a heart, it is worth nothing.
Whoever has no longing does not know
that a heart without love has no joy.
Why should the heart nourish anything but love?
Without a burning fire the heart grows cold.
Let there be no such heart that holds no fire,
no desire to brighten the gathering.
Go, hold your head high in the play of love;
in the street of love, gamble away name and shame.
For reason has no better calling than this,
and in the world there is no finer thought.
I heard the counsel and gave my heart to love;
like the dazed, I am drunk on love's cup.
I handed the kingdom of my soul to love;
I called out love's summons to the whole world.
And if I threw my heart into love's snare,
I became a target of sorrow and lost my heart.
From now on her street is Kaaba enough for me;
the arch of her brow is my soul's prayer-niche enough.