You Shall Not See Me
Only union with you gives joy.
The rest is tearing down one building
to put up another.
……………… But don’t break
with forms!
Boats cannot move without water.
We are misquoted texts
made right when you say, us.
We are sheep in a tightening wolf-circle:
You come like a shepherd and ask,
………………“So how are you?”
I start crying.
This means something to anyone in a body,
but what means something to you?
You can’t be spoken though you listen
to all sound. You can’t be written,
but you read everything.
You don’t sleep, yet you are the source of dream-vision.
Your ship glides over nothing,
deep silence, praise for the ONE,
who told Moses on Sinai,
………………You Shall Not See Me
by Rumi
translation: Coleman Barks
from New Rumi Translations
Maypop Books, 1987
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