Kabir
1
When my friend is away from me, I am depressed;
nothing in the daylight delights me,
sleep at night gives no rest,
who can I tell about this?
The night is dark, and long…hours go by…
because I am alone, I sit up suddenly,
fear goes through me…
Kabir says: Listen, my friend:
There is one thing in the world that satisfies,
And that is a meeting with the Guest.
2
I don't know what sort of God we have been talking about.
The caller calls in a loud voice to the Holy One at dusk.
Why? Surely the Holy One is not deaf.
He hears the delicate anklets that ring on the feet of an insect as it walks.
Go over and over your beads,
paint designs on your forehead,
Wear your hair matted, long, and ostentatious,
But when deep inside you there is a loaded gun,
How can you have God?
3
Oh friend, I love you, think this over carefully!
If you are in love, then why are you asleep?
If you have found him,
Give yourself to him, take him.
Why do you lose track of him again and again?
If you are about to fall into heavy sleep anyway, why
Waste time smoothing the bed and arranging the pillows?
Kabir will tell you the truth: this is what love is like:
Suppose you had to cut your head off and give it to someone else, what
difference would it make?
4
Student, do the simple purification.
You know that the seed is inside the horse-chestnut tree,
And inside the seed there are blossoms of the tree, and the chestnuts, and
the shade.
So inside the human body there is the seed, and inside the seed there is
the body again.
Fire, air, earth, water, and space - if you don't want the secret one, you
cannot have these either.
Thinkers listen, tell me what you know of that is not in the soul?
A pitcher full of water is set down on the water -
Now it has water inside and water outside.
We mustn't give it a name, lest silly people start talking again about the
body and the soul.
If you want the truth, I'll tell you the truth;
Listen to the secret sound, the real sound, which is inside you.
The one no one talks of speaks the secret sound to himself,
And he is the one who has made it all.
5
Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains,
And the maker of canyons and mountains!
All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars.
The acid that tests gold is there, and the one who judges jewels.
And the music from the strings no one touches, and the source of all water.
If you want the truth, I will tell you the truth:
Friend, listen: The God whom I love is inside.
6
Why should we two ever want to part?
Just as the leaf of the water rhubarb lives floating on the water,
We live as the Great one and the little one.
As the owl opens his eyes all night to the moon, we live as
The Great one and the little one.
This love between us goes back to the first humans; it cannot be annihilated.
Here is Kabir's idea: as the river gives itself into the ocean,
What is inside me moves inside you.