Ode 2039

Go to your pillow and sleep, my son.

Leave me alone in the passion

Of this death-night.

Let the mill turn with your grieving.

But stay clear. Don’t fall
into the river with me.

There’s no way out,
no cure but death.

Last night in a dream I saw an old man
standing in a garden.

It was all Love.

He held out his hand and said,

Come toward me.

If there is a dragon on this path,
that old man has the emerald face
that can deflect it.

This is enough
I am leaving me self.

Bahauddin, my son,
if you want to be impressively learned,
memorize a famous historian,
and quote him as someone else!

From: Rumi – Like This
Versions by: Coleman Barks