Kabir
30
Clouds grow heavy. Thunder goes. Rain drives in from the East, its patter
falling on the sides of houses.
Rain can be destructive, wiping out boundary marks.
But the soil needs care - ecstatic love has sprouts now
And renunciation.
Let the rain feed both.
Only the farmer with intelligence actually brings his
Harvest back to his farmyard.
He will fill the grainary bins, and feed both
the wise men and the saints.
31
Friend, wake up! Why do you go on sleeping?
The night is gone, do you want to lose the day the same way?
Others who managed to get up early have already found an elephant or a jewel.
So much lost while you sleep, & it is so unnecessary!
The one who loves you understood, but you did not.
You forgot to make a place in the bed next to you;
Instead you spent your life playing with things
That did not matter.
In your twenties you did not grow because what you sought after was not
your true nature.
Wake up! Wake up! There's no one in your bed -
In your long night you were alone.
Kabir says: The only one awake is the one who has heard the flute!
32
I played for ten years with children my own age
but now I am suddenly in fear.
I am on the way up some stairs - they are high;
Yet I have to give up my fears if I want to
Take part in this love.
I have to let go the protective clothes
& meet him with the whole length of my body.
My eyes will have to be the love candles this time.
Kabir says: Men & women in love will understand
This poem.
If what you feel for the Holy One is not desire
Then what is the use of dressing with such care, and
Spending so much time making your eyelids dark?
33
I married my Lord & meant to live with him.
But I did not live with him & turned away
& all at once my twenties were gone!
The night I was married all my friends from school sang for me, & the rice
of pleasure & the rice of pain fell on me.
Yet when all those ceremonies were over, I left,
I did not go home with him.
& my relatives said, "it's all right."
Kabir says: Now my love energy is actually mine.
This time I will take it with me when I go,
& outside his house I will blow the horn of triumph.
34
The small ruby everyone wants has fallen out on the road.
Some think it is East of us, others West of us.
Some say among primitive earth rocks;
Others, in the deep waters.
Kabir's instinct told him it was inside,
And what it was worth -
& he wrapped it up carefully in his heart cloth.
35
Swan, I'd like you to tell me your whole story!
Where you first appeared, and what dark sand you
Are flying toward.
& where you sleep at night & what you are looking for.
It is morning - wake up! Climb in the air & follow me.
I know of a place not ruled by flatness
Or constant risings & depressions,
& those alive are not afraid to die.
There wild flowers come up through the leafy floor,
& the fragrance of "I am he" floats on the wind.
There the love bee stays deep inside the flower
& cares for no other thing.