[Sunlight] Dissolver of Sugar -- Ghazal 3019

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Here, Sunlight offers Ghazal 3019, from the Diwan-e Shams,
in a version by Coleman Barks, and in translation by A.J. Arberry:

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Dissolver of Sugar

Dissolver of sugar, dissolve me, if this is the time.
Do it gently with a touch of a hand, or a look.
Every morning I wait at dawn; that's when it's happened before.
Or do it suddenly like an execution.
How else can I get ready for death?
You breathe without a body like a spark.
You grieve, and I begin to feel lighter.
You keep me away with your arm,
but the keeping away is pulling me in.

-- Version by Coleman Barks
"The Essential Rumi"
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

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You who slay like sugar the lovers, slay my soul sweetly this
moment, if you are slaying.
To slay sweetly and gently is the property of your hand,
because you slay with a glance he who seeks a glance.
Every morning continuously I am waiting, waiting, because
you generally slay me a dawn.
Your cruelty to us is candy; do not close the way to assistance.
Is it not the case that at the end you will slay me in front of the gate?
You whose breath is without a belly, you whose sorrow repels
sorrow, you who slay us in a breath like a spark,
Every moment you proffer another repulse like a shield; you
have abandoned the sword and are slaying with the shield.

-- Translation by A. J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 2"
The University of Chicago Press, 1991

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[Sunlight] Dissolver of Sugar -- Ghazal 3019