Love Mad

Songs of a Divine Vagabond

Hazrat Yusuf Ibn Adam Al-Ihsani

 To the One

*
Your music is all that’s left
And for this, I sing to You;
The only One who’s left for me to sing to …

*
The true path has no name,
it needs not, it has none …
The true God has no name, it needs not, it is One.

*
Isn’t it divine?
Even if it seems painful at times,
it is priceless; O this eternal embrace!

*
Where does it begin? Where does it end?
Are we really two?

Listen, love; the only blessing that appeals to this wave,

is to disappear in Your ocean!
 *
The lover knows song, but love knows silence …
I could look at You and sing these songs forever,
But in our silence, … in our silence we are One!

*
After seeing You,
all my heart knows is to cry …
It has turned days into sleepless nights.
And as I sit here,
You alone know what I am,
and that I live by dying!

*
Don’t you see?
Those tears haven’t rusted my heart …
On the contrary, they’ve revealed true gold.

The goldsmith says it’s ‘pure gold’,

so I’m sure some alchemy must’ve happened,
and those tears were, perhaps, made of sacred stuff …
 *
Where is the blessing but here?
Who is blessed but me?
No friend, nor foe, just fools you are …
To seek to find yourselves somewhere, sometime, far …

*
How long I’ve waited, only eternity can tell …
For instead of far and lost, I found You here …
Always here!

*
Each moment with You is worth a lifetime;
When You speak to me, when our eyes meet …
All these moments are forever!

And if a million times I were to say to You,

as if gone mad … ‘You’re so beautiful!’
As many times, You would somehow show me
that the beauty I see is myself.
*
All these dreams until one dreams of waking up!
 *
I thought that meeting you
would bring it all to an end,
but, Lo, this death has ushered life,
and You alone know what lives here …

Until You decide it’s time

to let me die in Your love
So You alone remain. …
*
You are the purest inspiration
to somehow let them know what I know …
‘You are true!’

I have seen You,

have died …
and now wonder who writes these lines.

*
There’s always music to remind me that You are …
My heart constantly sings …
It sings Your name,
so You hear all my cries …
 Yes, for some days I left Your side,
but the moment I turned within …
There You were; my heart is Your home!

And if this most beautiful song

has us dancing, dancing, dancing …
If the path is endless,
we’ll go on living, living, living!

*
He gave it all!
Blessed, he found the key and used it …
Now He is the only One … The only One seeing all this!

*
Beyond the sky of our minds,
always so clouded by thoughts …
There is a constant watcher.
Shining without recognition,
nevertheless; ever shining …
Beyond the sky of our minds.
 *
Whatever I do,
I speak of You without saying your name …

*
Every heart, once opened, … is awestruck!
At this uncaused generosity, … Your self-giving treasure!

*
Let today’s rain wash away all the dirt of generations …
As the Sufis dance away at the peak of celebration …
Let this river run so wild, that it knows no formal path …
In its love for the ocean, it will meet its certain death!

***

2006 - Kanpur - India