I know the way you can get
when you have not had a drink of Love:
your face hardens,
your sweet muscles cramp.
children become concerned
about a strange look that appears in your eyes
which even begins to worry your own mirror
and nose.
squirrels and birds sense your sadness
and call an important conference in a tall tree.
they decide which secret code to chant
to help your mind and soul.
even angels fear that brand of madness
that arrays itself against the world
and throws sharp stones and spears into
the innocent
and into one's self.
O I know the way you can get
if you have not been drinking Love:
you might rip apart
every sentence your friends and teachers say,
looking for hidden clauses.
you might weigh every word on a scale
like a dead fish.
you might pull out a ruler to measure
from every angle in your darkness
the beautiful dimensions of a heart you once
trusted.
I know the way you can get
if you have not had a drink from Love's
hands.
That is why all the Great Ones speak of
the vital need
to keep remembering God,
so you will come to know and see Him
as being so Playful
and Wanting,
just Wanting to help.
That is why Hafiz says:
bring your cup near me.
For all I care about
is quenching your thirst for freedom!
All a Sane man can ever care about
Is giving Love!
From: 'I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz'
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky
RE: I know the way you get when you have not had a drink of Love...
Beautiful, thanks for sharing. I had never heard of this poet, I am off to do some research. 
I like Rumi and Kahlil Gibran, so I am sure this poet will appeal to me.
RE: I know the way you get when you have not had a drink of Love...
Oh Trin!
I knew as soon as I read the title of your thread that this was one of Daniel Ladinsky's versions of Hafiz' sublime Sufi poetry. I don't have the book but was lucky enough to be lent it a few years back and I made copies of many of the poems.
I was interested too to read the introduction which explained that Sufism was outlawed by mainstream Islam and had to operate underground (as is still the case in, for example, Turkey today, I believe). thus the Sufi poets like Hafiz used symbols - such as wine - to describe their relationship with the Divine.
Hafiz' poems as rendered by Daniel Ladinsky are signposts to self realisation. Thank you for reminding me of them.
With love
Sunanda xxx
RE: I know the way you get when you have not had a drink of Love...
How wonderful to share in appreciation of such divinely inspired poetry.
It is the spaces between the words that sing to the depths of my being, and renders me speechless!
Sign posts to self realisation! I entirely agree!
Sundanda, thank you also... you have reminded me of another of my Hafiz favourites from "Drunk on the Wind of the Beloved"
(Translated by Thomas Rain Crowe)
I've said it before and I'll say it again:
It's not my fault that with a broken heart, I've gone this way.
In front of a mirror they have put me like a parrot,
And behind the mirror the Teacher tells me what to say.
Whether I am perceived as a thorn or a rose, it's
The Gardener who has fed and nourished me day to day.
O friends, don't blame me for this broken heart;
Inside me there is a great jewel and it's to the Jeweler's shop I go.
Even though, to pious, drinking wine is a sin,
Don't judge me; I use it as a bleach to wash the color of hypocrisy away.
All that laughing and weeping of lovers must be coming from some other place;
Here, all night I sing with my winecup and then moan for You all day.
If someone were to ask Hafiz, "Why do you spend all your time sitting in
The Winehouse door?," to this man I would say, "From there, standing,
I can see both the Path and the Way.
Oh, how I love it!!!
With Love
Trin
RE: I know the way you get when you have not had a drink of Love...
Hi Trin
I'm so sorry I missed your reply and the new poem. You may have noticed me moaning about not being online at home but I am now - so wanted to return the compliment with another of Daniel Ladinsky's versions of Hafiz:
(This one's for me and you Trin!;))
A Divine Invitation
You have been invited to meet
The Friend.
No one can resist a Divine Invitation.
That narrows down all our choices
To just two:
We can come to God
Dressed for Dancing,
Or
Be carried on a stretcher
To God's Ward.
Much love
Sunanda xxx
RE: I know the way you get when you have not had a drink of Love...
How touching Sunanda[sm=FIFangel.gif]
The words are so true! We do have a choice.
Thank-you
Love
Trin
RE: I know the way you get when you have not had a drink of Love...
Hello trinity,
I have not been on the web in a while but found as the love of poetry in the ways that love come can become a binding prospect of the parting of the love of the liftments of the spiritual basis of the parting of the productions of measures to create a space to bring about the lifting of the refreshment of the love of the self as well as the love for another this interests me as there are times that come and go to bring about the passing of the lifting of the verses that can bring about the meaning that will come when you brace the parts of the loneliness of the parting to comfort to the things that are available
This is very much intesting as the drink of the instincts brings about the partering of the past with the future this is a part of the portal of the passages that come when you have been bringign about the parting of the ways we see that we give and get as there are time at the passing oto the futuristic parts to create there will be those that come together when we see that you are going to the humanistic form of flight. there will be those that are unable to comprehend the spacious parts for the parting of the passage of the human conditions to bring about the speediness of the true esteem to grow though the thought process that comes forward to the imitations of the intructional process that can bring about the true measures that con bring about the parts of the plans that can mix together the processing of the spiritual and the foundation for the partnering spaces to great the losses of the love that can bring together the interests of the flowing of the expressions this is a timing element that can bring a old way of the rights of passage to the love making of the partering of the wave of exsistance that willl come when you find true love.....{I've said it before and I'll say it again:
It's not my fault that with a broken heart, I've gone this way.
In front of a mirror they have put me like a parrot,
And behind the mirror the Teacher tells me what to say. (this is to say that there are times that we must use the voice of reason to create a space to bring about the legal ramifications to the love of what we must use to bring about the spaciousness of the laws of karmic occurances with this in mind we see that we can bring together those that are ment to be and those that are ariving to the conclusions of there consiousnes to the producutions of the man and woman trusts in the ways that we can invision the parting of the poductions of the laws of nature this is a planing experiance that willl come to those that are able to complete the self we see that this is a time frame that will bring about the parting of the porcell of the manifestative waiting periods from instructional producing the form of interests we set standards that can bring about the flow of interior designs that can bring about the passing of the premeium place of love....Gypsee