Kabir

I shall make
my eye
into a bridal chamber,
in its pupil
I shall lay
the bridal bed!

I'll use
my eye-lashes
like bamboo-curtains,
and there, O my friend
I shall adore
my Beloved!

Ah, there is
many a scholar
who has read
all the scriptures,
but only rarely
is there
a man of knowledge!

O dear friend
to be a man of knowledge
one needs to understand
only one word:
Love!

In search of the herb
that would make
me immortal,
I have roamed
in the mountains,
I have wept
with yearning!

But I am
still searching...
still searching!

Sand and stone
they have piled,
and they call it
a mosque!

And there
how like a hawker
the priest shouts
the name of Allah,
as though
God were deaf!

Everywhere
on the path
the pearls are scattered,
yet the blind men
don't notice them!

O seeker
without the light
of the Beloved,
who can find his way out of the labyrinth?

I yearn
to meet my Lover;
yet my heart
is parched of love
and my body
knows not
how to endear Him.

O dear friend
even if I see His face
will I recognize It?
Do I know the ways
to express my love
to Him?

O dear friend
in search of
my Beloved,
I wandered
all over the earth
in far and distant lands;

But on meeting
with him,
my own courtyard
became the universe!