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parvati9
USA
587 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 19 2013 : 11:06:20 AM
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Translator - Daniel Ladinsky
The truth is, I have been covering your butt,
God, for quite a while now in various ways
by not telling the world how you really are
behind that eloquent pose most holy books
are sporting of you.
This morning, though, it occurred to me
to just speak my mind, to just be forthright,
and get all my complaints out there in the
open so that we might have some kind of
public forum if you felt brave enough.
Are you ready? Okay then!
Here is one of my major gripes: Why would
anyone ever have to do anything to be let
back into their own house,
especially if it were cold outside and they
were shivering
and they were hungry too, and there was
lots of fresh warm food inside?
Another way of putting that is, if someone
were walking in front of me and
unknowingly dropped something precious,
something of extraordinary value,
What kind of person would I be if I did not run
as quickly as I could and pick that up
and use all my strength to protect and safeguard
it until I could return it?
Return it, if possible, without the person
having a moment, a moment of worry or
pain with the thought of it being lost.
I have fallen out of my own pocket. My own
pocket being you, Beloved. ***
Millions like me cry at night because something
is so deeply amiss.
The agony of separation you have caused us
to endure.
You follow our every step, dear God: you saw
what happened to us,
severed in a way from the infinite soul we became
when we lost the knowledge you, my Lord, have.
Why, why, why? Why, why, why are you not
running toward us with all your might
returning to us our glory, our freedom -
which is beyond dispute...our divine right?
I will tell you something about shame, God,
if you want to know.
You are the only one who should ever feel
that way, never us,
for you have stepped over a holy infant all
alone, dying in the cold.
I could go on tearing you apart, as I should,
but now I will give you a chance to speak,
after this final thought:
We should stop making excuses for you, my
strange Friend,
for how dare you make us beg for what you
say is ours?
No wonder you so rarely show your face,
acting as you do.
Still, is not all perfect, since all is in you? And
what may appear, will that not in just a moment
change, if you want.
Look, my love, I am back to covering your hiney
again. What to say. Guess a friend does that.
From A Year With Hafiz: Daily Contemplations
*** these are my favorite lines in Hafiz' poem |
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BillinL.A.
USA
375 Posts |
Posted - Nov 19 2013 : 12:12:51 PM
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My "victim" mind is lovin' this Parvati9!  |
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lalow33
USA
966 Posts |
Posted - Nov 19 2013 : 12:47:29 PM
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parvati9
USA
587 Posts |
Posted - Nov 19 2013 : 12:57:18 PM
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Many of us have confronted the divine with the question: Why do You allow so much suffering?
Hafiz appears to be doing what most of us do, or have done, from time to time... which is to blame god for all the suffering in the world. However he says:
"I have fallen out of my own pocket." And he tells us that "my own pocket" is god. So the obvious question for the reader: Is it god's job to pick us up and return us to our own pocket or is it our job?
Hafiz says he fell out of this pocket. And he gives us an illustration of a person losing something valuable, like their wallet. Probably most people who observed a wallet falling out of the pocket of a stranger in front of them - wouldn't hesitate to run and pick it up and yell to the person that they dropped their wallet. Why doesn't god do that?
God does do exactly that. But we have to be quiet/ still/ silent enough to hear the divine calling out to us. This is a sacred relationship, a partnership. Hafiz doesn't say god is our partner. But he leads us to that point where we have no choice but to recognize: God is, in fact, our partner. If it is a partner in crime, well then, so be it.
All this suffering (and the responsibility/ accountability for it) is not entirely on god then, is it? It's on us too. We may "cry at night because something is so deeply amiss". And yes, we want god to rectifiy the situation. Do we expect god to do it without us? Or are we going to help god with this rectification? How do we get right with god and how to get back in our own pocket?
Imo the reason this is such a great poem is that Hafiz is taking a position for the purpose of eliciting a response. He's throwing our own complaints back at us and coaxing us into the position of defending god. When reading that poem, unity is experienced (back in my own pocket).
I'm the complainer (the separate one) but I'm also the divine (the unifier) i.e., both sides are simultaneously experienced. Thus unification ensues. Brilliant, no?
I fell away from the divine and Hafiz' poem caused a movement back into the divine... all the while explaining exactly what he's doing.
love
parvati |
Edited by - parvati9 on Nov 19 2013 2:27:03 PM |
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Nov 19 2013 : 1:55:05 PM
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Thank you for sharing
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Hafiz
