“If there had not been Love”

THURSDAY, JUNE 1


“If there had not been Love”


If there had not been Love, how would there have been existence?
How would bread have attached itself to you and become assimilated?
The bread became you through your love and appetite;
for how else should bread have had any access to your living spirit?
Love makes lifeless bread into spirit:
it can make the spirit that was perishable everlasting.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gar na-budi `Eshq hasti kay bodi
kay zadi nân bar to o kay to shodi
Nân to shod az cheh ze `eshq o eshtâ
var nah nân-râ kay bodi tâ jân rahâ
`Eshq nân-e mordeh-râ mi jân konad
jân keh fâni bovad jâvidân konad

-- Mathnawi V: 2012-2014
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

The image:
http://tinyurl.com/en2ey

The Persian recitation:
http://tinyurl.com/jprwf

A Persian interpretation:
http://tinyurl.com/lezcl

“If there had not been Love”