The plums tasted

The one I longed for has come home;The raging fire of separation is quenched.Now I rejoice with Him, I sing in bliss.The peacocks at the cloud’s roarDance with unbound joy;I rejoice in ecstasyAt the sight of my Beloved.I am absorbed in His love;My misery of wanderingIn the world has ended.The lily bursts into bloomAt the…

a delight to this feverish heart.Season of rain,season of uncontrolled whispers—the Dark One’s returning!O swollen heart,O sky brimming with moisture—tongued lightning firstand then thunder,convulsive spatters of rainand then wind, chasing the summertime heat.Mira says: Dark One,I’ve waited—it’s time to take my songsinto the street.

delicately selected buds and blossoms,And have arrayed myself in bridal garbFrom head to toe.I have been Thy slave during many births,Thou art the be-all of my existence.Mira’s Lord is Hari, the Indestructible.Come, grant me Thy sight at once.

Only the woundedUnderstand the agonies of the wounded,When the fire rages in the heart.Only the jeweller knows the value of the jewel,Not the one who lets it go.In pain I wander from door to door,But could not find a doctor.Says Mira: Harken, my Master,Mira’s pain will subsideWhen Shyam comes as the doctor.

but what manners! To chew into each! She was ungainly,low-caste, ill mannered and dirty,but the god took thefruit she’d been sucking.Why? She’d knew how to love.She might not distinquishsplendor from filthbut she’d tasted the nectar of passion.Might not know any Veda,but a chariot swept her away-now she frolics in heaven, esctatically boundto her god.The Lord…

so I may go and play in the arbour.within the alcove I will meet my Master;Shedding all falsity, I’ll sing in joy.The sun will perish, so too the moon;Earth and sky will exist no more.Air and water will also go;The Eternal alone will there be.Of surat and nirat make the lamp,And let thy longing be…

“Become so still you hear the blood flowingthrough your veins.”One night as I sat in quiet,I seemed on the verge of entering a world inside so vastI know it is the source ofall ofus.

You have gone off to distant lands,And my heart finds it unbearable.I keep sending letters to my BelovedAsking when He will return.Mira’s Lord is the courtly Giridhara:O Krishna, O Brother of Balram,Grant me thy sight.

skirt.And you have gone to a distant country.Unbearable heart,letter after letterjust asking when,my lord, whenare you coming?[Translated by Andrew Schelling]

is in love.If you cannot picture Godin a way that alwaysstrengthensyou,You need to readmore of mypoems[Translated by Daniel Ladinsky]

If we could reach the Lord through immersion in water,I would have asked to be born a fish in this life.If we could reach Him through nothing but berries and wild nuts,Then surely the saints would have been monkeys when they came from the womb!If we could reach him by munching lettuce and dry leaves,Then…

O sadhus! there is no other–I have seenthe whole world.I left brothers, I left kindred, I leftall I had.Sitting near the sadhus, I lost worldly shame.I looked at the devotees and I was one withthem; I looked at the world and wept.With tears I watered love’s creeperand it took root.I churned the milk, drew out…