Rumi: The Mystic, The Lover

By day I praised you 
and never knew it.
By night I stayed with you 
and never knew it.
I always thought that 
I was me--but no,
I was you 
and never knew it.

===================================

The Lovers
will drink wine night and day.
They will drink until they can 
tear away the veils of intellect and
melt away the layers of shame and modesty.
When in Love, 
body, mind, heart and soul don't even exist.
Become this, 
fall in Love, 
and you will not be separated again.
===========================================
When we talk about the witness in our verse, 
we talk about you.
A pure heart and a noble demeanor
cannot compete with your radiant face.
They will ask you 
what you have produced.
Say to them,
except for Love, 
what else can a Lover produce? 
==============================================

My head is bursting 
with the joy of the unknown.
My heart is expanding a thousand fold.
Every cell, 
taking wings, 
flies about the world.
All seek separately
the many faces of my Beloved.
==================================================
Love came, 
and became like blood in my body.
It rushed through my veins and 
encircled my heart.
Everywhere I looked, 
I saw one thing.
The Beloved's name written
on my limbs, 
on my left palm, 
on my forehead, 
on the back of my neck, 
on my right big toe…
Oh, my friend,
all that you see of me
is just a shell,
and the rest belongs to the Beloved.
====================================================
I am in Love! 
I am in Love with him.
All this advise--
what's the use?
I have drunk poison. 
All this sugar 
what's the use?
You say hurry, 
tie up his feet.
But its my heart that's gone crazy, 
all this rope 
around my feet--
what's the use?

===============================================
There is a certain Love 
that is formed out of the 
elixir of the East.
There is a certain cloud, 
impregnated with a 
thousand lightnings.
There is my body, 
in it an ocean formed of his glory, 
all the creation, 
all the universes, 
all the galaxies, 
are lost in it.

==================================================
I wish I could give you a taste of 
the burning fire of Love.
There is a fire 
blazing inside of me.
If I cry about it, or if I don't,
the fire is at work, 
night and day.
People make clothing to cover their intellect,
but the heart of Lovers 
is a shroud, 
inflamed in golden hues of his Love.
===================================