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The lover is even worse than a drunkard.I will tell you what love is: to enter a mine of gold.And what is that gold?The lover is a king above all kings,unafraid of death, not at all interested in a golden crown.The dervish has a pearl concealed under his patched cloak.Why should he go begging door…

or on the ground, in this world or that world,without my being in its happening.Vision, see nothing I don’t see.Language, say nothing.The way the night knows itself with the moon,be that with me. Be the rosenearest to the thorn that I am.I want to feel myself in you when you taste food,in the arc of…

There is no reason for living except for giving one’s life.I said, ‘First I know you, then I die.’He said, ‘For the one who knows Me, there is no dying.’

This is notgrief or joy.Not a judging state,or an elation,or sadness.Those come and go.This is the presence that doesn’t.

For the heart is all the substance,The speech an accident.How many phrases will you speak,Too many for me.How much burning, burning will you feel,Be friendly with the fire, enough for me.Light up the fire of love inside,And blaze the thoughts away.

Let us go prostrating to the sea like a torrent, then let us go foaming upon the face of the sea.Let us journey from this street of mourning to the wedding feast, let us go from this saffron face to the face of the Judas tree blossom.Trembling like a leaf and twig from fear of…

You must ask for what you really want.Don’t go back to sleep.People are going back and forth across the doorsillwhere the two worlds touch.The door is round and open.Don’t go back to sleep.