The Traveler's Rest: Courtyard/One

This melody is magnificent verse, beloved, come taste and see!
With my own hands I'll give you dream-rapture, arrange it there as the heart desires,
In those eyes of yours take it all in, taste deeply with those lips,
Come beloved today to this gathering—in this solitude, this quietude.

You are fierce-weary with thirst, turn away from the world, look at me,
To my tune, to my rhythm rise and dance today in song, in joy,
Drink life's nectar, you may not find time again—who knows!
In this tavern of the world take yourself, fear not, for I am here!
Look and see beloved, I am your cup of thirst,
Your thirst fills me so when I am empty,
I have ignited you, burned the heart—yours and mine.......how many times......I don't even remember!
Do you remember, beloved? Yet again and again we became one by what magic!
Today I have come to this gathering scattered, to bind you tangled in threads of imagination,
As melody's magic intoxicates, so shall I fill you with life's enchantment.
Don't drink it all in one sip, become drunk in slow measure,
My creation is wine of melody—drink it and bless this humble me.
Love gives happiness to this me all life long,
You simply keep drinking mindfully to awaken thirst,
I shall rise awakened in your enchantment,
In your service my heart's tavern stands open—find opportunity to sit and come!
Lost in the room's spin, drinking that drink, he only asks laughing,
"Where shall I go? How shall I manage?"
Intoxicated by religion's wine! What does he know of finding the path?
"Walk on still! Walking you'll find direction to that tavern's way," someone seems to say!
Alas I cry! Walking alone I've passed some time!
"More, more distant......." still he says!
"Move forward friend! Move you must!" Courage fails! I walk in fear.........
I tire greatly. Mistakenly I think, to quench this thirst I must walk how much farther!
After crossing how many more paths wine and honey fall into distinction—I don't understand!
With stories packed in my fist, flying in the desert wind when I move,
Then I sway on the bridge of wine and intoxication understanding nothing—making both ends one!
When the mind stops in the mind's error I convince the mind, else if you lose the path you'll lose your wits, and if you're lost you'll lose everything!
If the cup of intoxication adorns the heart, if wine enchants the deep soul,
Let drinking's intoxication awaken then, not before!
When you're absorbed in meditation, don't drink, bind yourself,
Keep the drinking wares arranged, drink only after meditation!
Pour wine into stale honey, and silently watch the spectacle!
The priest still alas goes begging for wine! In hope of what? I watch silently.
No more—if heaven comes after just four steps, why seek hell?
Knowing all, still I see how many people talk nonsense, hear wrong, keep drinking, keep inhaling.........running with sin!
One cup circles and kisses another, and in between the ring spins,
Wine of melody plays in the veena, spreads beyond floor and courtyard,
From where does that honey-merchant and wine-trader strike up friendship,
To break wine's enchanted spell honey stumbles—in addition and subtraction wine alone wins!
Wine jar in the palm,
Storm boat in golden hair,
Drunkards' band rushes reckless,
Like twilight plundering rainbow!
Notice before the cup where the nose leans, toward which side it inclines,
While I'm awake I'll identify the breed, get them drunk,
Whose death comes before intoxication, leave aside their talk,
Who walks the path, walks knowing it. Even the wrong path—understanding, he cuts through.
Let the red letter's light dance as you wish,
See the wine by the fennel, don't abandon it on any whim,
However much unsolicited suffering awakens great intoxication, wine's memory—if you seek you'll find me.........
The joy that came selling sorrow, in that very joy this house survives!
Halal and haram don't exist in wine, or in scripture. By what corruption is thought corrupted again, tell me?
What I do is halal, or haram.
Whether wine or chalice, neither can ever be forbidden.
The cup that catches fire burns the heart, burns the body!
Do not fear, my friend, come with open heart to the tavern.
When night drowses at its midpoint,
the candle then draws wine,
why did you come, beloved, to this heart, this soul at this untimely hour?
Why make me drunk with love if you must leave?
Where did such truth come from?
I said nothing at all, my friend!
You have set your gaze upon this heart, given both time and mind to this soul—
that is why I have lost my way on other paths!
That moment has become immortal, the moment you arrived.
Today I see, looking back, you were there even on old paths!
The sound that still resonates in my heart,
that sound I see.........is an echo—that gift too is yours!
The gods who have come here by God's hand,
with whom He plays according to His will,
why do they weep in anguish in our very hands?
Tell me, why does heaven's lute play out of tune in earthly garb in this mortal realm?
The flute that seeks only heaven,
to whose melody only heaven dances,
when that magic intoxicates the earth,
it suffers—for the house of magic is surely not here!
This mind's desires, like so many storms
come to life and shatter life, shatter death!
The heart in its strange melody, its ruthless voice
drives me mad—making me crazy, making me crazed.
Sleep comes while walking the path, the burden feels light as soon as understood,
yet the cup still burns the lips, inflames the eyes, enrages the heart.
When the body is dry and lifeless, two sips moisten the heart,
like midnight's beloved, how generously that cup pours honey!
Burn knowledge to quench the fire, send flames flying to adorn life,
seek the temple in your heart, forget what lies outside for now!
The path's direction lives in your mind, the inspired soul knows this too!
Come to this moment in this garden of honey. Fear not, I will adorn you in your way, on your very path!
This one life spent entirely in the sleep of rice,
such a person never once touched the cup,
whether wine or honey, both were rejected in one lifetime,
whoever lived a parched life never knew what life could be!
Only the worshipper knows the worth of the offering, the rest merely misunderstand,
in what honey's intoxication does the bee revel—how would you know to seek that?
Rush to that sacred ground in betel's euphoria, while there is time drink wine and arrange your life,
when melody and wine are bound together within the limits of aspiration and achievement, then understand—this indeed is life!
All these wares of pleasure spread before us, none of it will remain,
only this wine will endure, know this. Whatever essence you see scattered there—will dry up,
kings, kingdoms—all will end. Palaces will crumble, turn to dust, all desires will become water,
we alone will remain awake, floating in that melody that binds heaven's immortal key.