I HAVE COME INTO THIS WORLD TO SEE THIS

Below is a poem from “A Year with Hafiz”, translated by Daniel Ladinsky.  Hafiz (given name:  Shams-ud-din Mohammad) was a Persian poet living c. 1320-1389.  Hafiz was a Sufi Muslim and he is considered the most loved poet of Persians.  My husband and I read out loud one of Hafiz’s poems everyday with our morning coffee.  The poem for November 22^nd and 23^rd really resonates with both of us.  Substitute “Her” for “Him” if you wish, and “Christ” in my view, is the Divine Heart.

I HAVE COME INTO THIS WORLD TO SEE THIS

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 His—the Christ’s, or Beloved’s.

I have come into this world to see this:  all creatures

holding hands as we pass through this miraculous

existence we share on the way to even a 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 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:  women

and men so true to love they would rather die before

speaking an unkind word,

women and 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, we have finally realized,

there is just one flesh we can wound and it is our own.