Tag: romance

Hafiz poem interpretation – What Happens
Hafez · love · Poem · Poetry · Spiritual

Hafiz poem interpretation – What Happens

radhikab

Here is my interpretation of Hafiz’s poem ‘What Happens’

What happens when your soul
Begins to awaken
Your eyes
And your heart
And the cells of your body
To the great Journey of Love?

First there is wonderful laughter
And probably precious tears

And a hundred sweet promises
And those heroic vows
No one can ever keep.

But still God is delighted and amused
You once tried to be a saint.

What happens when your soul
Begins to awake in this world

To our deep need to love
And serve the Friend?

O the Beloved
Will send you 
One of His wonderful, wild companions –

Like Hafiz.

In this poem Hafiz first describes someone who is falling in love – in the worldly ‘love’ sense – with another human being, with expectations of love being returned. This ‘great journey’ of love is what slowly makes this human being feel alive. In this love, we make a lot of heroic promises which we obviously break over time as this love/relationship becomes a mundane thing in our life. He says, God is truly amused at this childlike behavior of humans but God still appreciates that humans try to be noble, brave and saintly in the name of love.

Then he says, similarly a person might have another type of soul awakening to love – but this time, it could be to a divine type of love – one that is free of attachments and expectations. It is the deep need to love anyone whom you see hurting or suffering, the need to serve those who need help. What happens to a person like this? Hafiz answers this by saying that God will send you one of his messengers to help you out, to show you the way, to guide you. A messenger, just like Hafiz 🙂

Taken from  ‘I Heard God Laughing : Renderings of Hafiz’ by Daniel Ladinsky.

Image credit : me

 

Rumi poem interpretation – Love is reckless
feel good · love · Poem · Rumi · Spiritual

Rumi poem interpretation – Love is reckless

radhikab

Here is my interpretation of Rumi’s poem ‘Love is reckless’

Love is reckless; not reason.

Reason seeks a profit.

Love comes on strong,

consuming herself, unabashed.

Here the author is comparing logic and love. Love cannot be made to happen by a logical reasoning or conclusion. Love just happens – it is reckless. It can happen to anyone at any time – it does not see if this is in the person’s profit or not. When it happens it consumes the person – body, mind and soul. It is an all consuming feeling.

Yet, in the midst of suffering,

Love proceeds like a millstone,

hard surfaced and straightforward.

Love is also a very strong feeling – no matter how much suffering surrounds it – it keeps carrying on like a strong millstone.

Having died of self-interest,

she risks everything and asks for nothing.

Love gambles away every gift God bestows.

Once a person is in true love, the idea of selfishness does not occur to the person – for they start living only for the benefit of their beloved. In this love frenzy they don’t mind giving up anything valuable that God has bestowed upon them.

Without cause God gave us Being;

without cause, give it back again. 

The author says that God has given us this life and the many experiences it provides in a completely selfless manner – in true love for us. In exactly that manner, we can use our being to serve everyone with love and ultimately give our being back to God. It is not necessary to always do things with a profit in mind. This is akin to the idea – ‘Let all you do, be done in love’ 1 Corinthians 16:14

Masnavi: Teachings of Rumi

by Jelaluddin Rumi (Author), E. H. Whinfield (Editor, Translator)

Image Credit : https://hdwallpaperfx.com/lovers-in-nature/

Rumi unnamed poem interpretation
love · Poem · Poetry · Rumi · Spiritual

Rumi unnamed poem interpretation

radhikab

When I am with you, we stay up all night.

When you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep.

Praise God for these two insomnias!

And the difference between them.

This poem describes the feelings of lovers – when they meet they don’t want to sleep – they would rather do other things and not waste their time sleeping.

And when they are not together, they cannot sleep because they miss the other and are lost in thoughts of their lover – due to which the brain cannot relax and they cannot sleep.

Rumi thanks God for these feelings and these two different reasons for having this insomnia. He is basically emphasizing what a wondrous thing love is! In love one can enjoy being apart as much as being together. As love is the core feeling which is given by God and takes us near God as well.

Taken from The Essential Rumi

translated by Coleman Barks

Image credit : Google Images