PoemBecause I Cannot Sleep
Author / PoetRumi
Reference“Like This” Coleman Barks, Maypop, 1990
TagsFlower, Moon, Naked, Sleep

Because I cannot sleep
I make music at night.
I am troubled by the one
whose face e has the color of spring flowers.
I have neither sleep nor patience,
neither a god reputation nor disgrace.
A thousand robes of wisdom are gone.
All my good manners have moved a thousand miles away.
The heart and the mind are left angry with each other.
The starts and the moon are envious of each other.
Because of this alienation the physical universe
is getting tighter and tighter.
The moon says, “How long will I remain
suspended without a sun?”
Without Love’s jewel inside of me,
let the bazaar of my existence by destroyed stone by stone.
O Love, You who have been called by a thousand names,
You who know how to pour the wine
into the chalice of the body,
You who give culture to a thousand cultures,
You who are faceless but have a thousand faces,
O Love, You who shape the faces
of Turks, Europeans, and Zanzibaris,
give me a glass from Your bottle,
or a handful of bheng from Your Branch.
Remove the cork once more.
The we’ll see a thousand chiefs prostrate themselves,
and a circle of ecstatic troubadours will play.
Then the addict will be breed of craving.
and will be resurrected,
and stand in awe till Judgement Day.

Ode 314

Those who don’t feel this Love
pulling them like a river,
those who don’t drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take in sunset like supper,
those who don’t want to change,

let them sleep.

This Love is beyond the study of theology,
that old trickery and hypocrisy.
I you want to improve your mind that way,

sleep on.

I’ve given up on my brain.
I’ve torn the cloth to shreds
and thrown it away.

If you’re not completely naked,
wrap your beautiful robe of words
around you,

and sleep.

Rumi
Rumi
30 Sep 1207 - 17 Dec 1273
Region: Southern Asia
Period: Medieval
Movement: Sufi

more poems by Rumi

Poem NameTopic
The Ship Sunk In LoveBurn, Love, Sleepless
The Interest Without The CapitalExistence, Love, Reality
Stay Close, My HeartFlowers, Heart, Soul
Love is The MasterDestiny, Fool, Hurricane
Whispers of LoveFool, Whisper
Mathnawi VI: 2955-2962Spirit
At the Hour of the Morning DrinkDrink, Morninge, Truth
Mathnawi VI: 255-260Beauty, Importance, Pure
Reason Says, “I Will Beguile Him With The Tongue”Angels, Love, Prisoner
I Have Come So That, Tugging Your EarHeart, Rose, Soul

all poems by Rumi

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