Rabia - I have made you the companion of my heart

I have made You the Companion of my heart.
But my body is available to those who desire its company,
And my body is friendly toward its guest,
But the Beloved of my heart is the guest of my soul.
- Rabi´a al-Adawiyya, Perfume of the Desert

Rabia - The source of my suffering and loneliness is deep in my heart

The source of my suffering and loneliness is deep in my heart.
This is a disease no doctor can cure.
Only Union with the Friend can cure it.
-Rabi´a al-Adawiyya, Perfume of the Desert

Rabia - I have two ways of loving you

I have two ways of loving You:
A selfish one
And another way that is worthy of You.
In my selfish love, I remember You and You alone.
In that other love, You lift the veil
And let me feast my eyes on Your Living Face.
- Rabi´a al-Adawiyya. Doorkeeper of the heart

Rabia - In love, nothing exists between hear and heart

In love, nothing exists between heart and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows,
the one who explains, lies.
How can you describe the true form of Something
In whose presence you are blotted out?
And in whose being you still exist?
And who lives as a sign for your journey?
-Rabia al-Adawiyya

Emre - Your love has wrested me away from me

Your love has wrested me away from me,
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.
Day and night I burn, gripped by agony,
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.

I find no great joy in being alive,
If I cease to exist, I would not grieve,
The only solace I have is your love,
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.

Lovers yearn for you, but your love slays them,
At the bottom of the sea it lays them,
It has the Beloved's images-it displays them;
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.

Let me drink the wine of love sip by sip,
Like Mecnun, live in the hills in hardship,
Day and night, care for you holds me in its grip,
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.

Even if, at the end, they make me die
And scatter my ashes up to the shy,
My pit would break into this outcry:
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.

"Yunus Emre the mystic" is my name,
Each passing day fans and rouses my flame,
What I desire in both worlds in the same:
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.
-Yunus Emre

Sanai - Someone who keeps aloof from suffering

Someone who keeps aloof from suffering
is not a lover. I choose your love
above all else. As for wealth
if that comes, or goes, so be it.
Wealth and love inhabit separate worlds.

But as long as you live here inside me,
I cannot say that I am suffering.
-Sanai

Rumi - You have no idea how hard I have looked for a gift to bring you.

You have no idea how hard I have looked for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.

What is the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the Ocean.
Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient.

It's no good giving my heart and my soul because you already have these.

So- I've brought you a mirror.

Look at yourself and remember me.
- Mevlana Rumi

Rumi - Listen for the stream

Listen for the stream
that tells you one thing.

Die on this bank.
Begin in me
the way of rivers with the sea.
- Rumi
Coleman Barks, Say I am You

Hafiz - Come, let's scatter roses and pour wine in the glass

Come,
let's scatter roses and pour wine in the glass,
we'll shatter heaven's roof and lay a new foundation.
If sorrow raises armies to shed the blood of lovers,
I'll join with the wine bearer so we can overthrow them.
With a sweet string at hand, play a sweet song, my friend,
so we can clap and sing a song and lose our heads in dancing.
--Hafiz (Ghani-Qazvini, no 374)' the Shambhala Guide to Sufism' Carl.W Ernst, Ph.D.

Attar - Intoxicated by the wine of love

Intoxicated by the Wine of Love.
From each a mystic silence Love demands.
What do all seek so earnestly? 'Tis Love.
What do they whisper to each other? Love.
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts.
In Love no longer 'thou' and 'I' exist,
For Self has passed away in the Beloved.
Now will I draw aside the veil from Love,
And in the temple of mine inmost soul,
Behold the Friend; Incomparable Love.
He who would know the secret of both worlds,
Will find the secret of them both, is Love.
- Attar

Anvari - Last night, from the palm of the love-selling beauty...

Last night, from the palm of the love-selling beauty,
I drank the wine of union until the morning.
Tonight, with a hundred thousand screams and cries,
I wait - when will there be another night like that?
- Anvari