Hafiz: A Golden Compass

A Golden Compass

Forget every idea of right and wrong

Any classroom ever taught you

Because

An empty heart, a tormented mind,

Unkindness, jealousy and fear

Are always the testimony

You have been completely fooled!

Turn your back on those

Who would imprison your wondrous spirit

With deceit and lies.

Come, join the honest company

Of the King's beggars -

Those gamblers, scoundrels and divine clowns

And those astonishing fair courtesans

Who need Divine Love every night.

Come, join the courageous

Who have no choice

But to bet their entire world

That indeed,

Indeed, God is Real.

I will lead you into the Circle

Of the Beloved's cunning thieves,

Those playful royal rogues -

The ones you can trust for true guidance -

Who can aid you

In this Blessed Calamity of life.

Hafiz,

Look at the Perfect One

At the Circle's Center:

He Spins and Whirls like a Golden Compass,

Beyond all that is Rational,

To show this dear world

That Everything,

Everything in Existence

Does point to God.

~ Hafiz ~

(I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)


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