What is the Heart? by Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi What is the heart? It is not human and it is not imaginary.

. I call it you.

Stately bird, who one moment combines with this world, and the next, passes through the boundary unseen.

The soul cannot find you, Because you are the souls wings, how it mo es.

!yes cannot see you. "ou are the source of sight.

"ou are the one thing that repentance will not repent, nor news report.

Spring comes. #ne seed refuses to germinate and start being a tree. #ne poor piece of wood blac$ens but will not catch fire.

The alchemist wonders a bit of copper that resists turning to gold.

Who am I that I am with you and still myself?

When the sun comes up, the complicated nightmind of the constellations fades.

Snow%forms do not last through &uly.

The heart 'uality embodied by our master, Shams Tabri(, will always dissol e the old 'uarrel between those who belie e in the dignity of a human beings decisions and those who claim that those are all illusion. From Rumi: The Big Red Book The )reat *asterpiece +elebrating *ystical ,o e .riendship, pp. /01%/00 The collected translations by Coleman Barks