I Have No Other Cup

I Have No Other Cup


(1)

Allaah, Allaah, yaa Allaah,

This girl that I see blooming,
Enchantingly bright,
With Your Eyes in place of my
Blindness;

Oh, she is so beautiful to me,
My heart is sealed with throbs.

She journeys in my silence
As an ancient desire;

Yes, I touched her once,
Before being.

I understand no other beauty
Except Your own;

A beauty like this.

And this shyness of mine
That turns me yellow and red
Like autumn leaves;

Does she know it?

Does she know in what name
I call her loveliness
Among silent whispers at night?

Oh this shyness,
Isn't it just a hiding place for this
Burning Love?

Beautiful girl,
Seek me there, seek me there,

Even under the blanket of dust and snow,
Under dreams and leaves,

You know that I have no other place
To hide from Love.

(2)

Though I know that
The sun too longs to kiss her every morning,

Though I know that
The winds too long to caress her,

Though I know that
All the winged and thirsty too desire her
Sweetness,

Though I know that
The rain too keeps beating out its sentiments for her,

Though I know that
Some other hearts, like vacant chambers,
Yearn to resonate with her name
To fill the misty sanctuary of loneliness,

Day and night,
Let her find my heart alone,
Yaa Allaah.

(3)

Hu Allaahu,

O You Who loves
And makes me a cup of
Your Sweet Pain,

Never veil the beauty that she is
From these tearful eyes.

For, in a single flower that she is,
Is reflected the whole beauty of
Nurooz.

How can I not want her
With a heavy madness that tastes like
The honey of June?

With every wind that swirls
In the sky and
Sings,

How can I not want to
Kiss her greatly
In my knowing her?

(3)

Shall I not wake up singing?

For a mind that sees and knows,

For a heart that beats and burns,

For a soul that loves and inquires,

Not to want her like
Majnuun wants Laylaa
Is the greatest sin that can be.

(4)

When I see my Beloved,
I open Life itself.

She falls upon my heart
Like the morning dew upon the grass;

Who is awake to witness this?

And when she does fall,
Something starts to burn upon my lips,

As a song from afar is heard
In a vastness with infinite eyes.

(5)

How can I refuse Love,
And not be fractured by its denial,

When even the proud sky cannot help
Turning blue and crimson?

When even the vast sea
Sends its waves unto distant shores,
Like a vastness without content?

When even the shy mountain stream
Runs down unto the valley to give all its
Coolness and essence?

Dani, Little Cup,
How can you not
Desire her when all things
Move in secret to land their
Kisses?

(6)

Sweetheart,
Save me, save me;

Save me from my silent self,
That hides a greater voice,

Save me, save me,
From a thousand years of solitude.

The veil of the night is no more,
Though a lonely trail remains to be trodden;

I almost cannot hear myself shouting
Your name from a distance;

Sweetheart,
Allaah alone is calling your name
By the Nearness that He is.

Where is my place in His remembrance,
Loving, and desiring?

How shall I separate myself from this yearning heart?
This heart, oh this heart;

No, I shall not,
I am on my way with dust filling my breath.

Do my dreams have doors
Through which I can escape
From Love's Wakefulness?

No, I am on my way to learn the meaning of
A single desire.

Let me devour this Fire,

Let me capture the surge of feelings
And the ghosts of lovers before me,

Let me learn how Love shapes itself,
Out of itself.

With the depth of every pain,
I see the Beloved
In the height of Love's joy.

I just cannot guard
This maddening glitter
And Love's trouble;

Don't you see?
In its heart,
The sea is driven by a storm.

Nor can I bind my sanity;

Sweetheart,
Come down running,
Every beat of my heart is calling you.

(7)

So long as the sun rises and sets
To tell us a story,

So long as the waves cling to the shore
With innumerable longings,

So long as nocturnal whispers pass through space
And the flailing night,

Love's seasons shall plant and harvest
My soul in a certain garden,
In a certain destiny.

By Muhammad, by 'Ali,

What is to love
But to sheath your sword,
Which is Reason,
In honey?

By my soul, unbetrayed,

To love is to go into the wilderness
And to find yourself in all names,
Painful and sweet.

(8)

Allaah, Allaah, yaa Allaah,

Scatter the ashes of my heart in
Love's Path,

Every bit of them shall bear
The fragrance of my Sweetheart
For the winds to spread.

Torture me with time's
Thorny whip, if necessary;

With the hours that strike in their passing,
Just allow me to be mad for my Beloved,
Your Beloved.

We both know,
You have not created me with
The smoothness and calm of patience.

Is not my mother
A beauty shaken by separation?

I was born unconstellated,
That I might quiver like this
And become a story of
Love's stories.

I am made of rainfalls and
Hidden tumults.

I am fashioned of dust ablaze,
Like a certain banished sovereignty.

I am a hurricane of dreams,
Not a petal of stillness.

Other than this madness,
I have no other cup for Your Love-Wine
For Mina.

[For Mina Sayang. Wednesday, 24/09/2008]

Dani