Let’s Plot to Make the Moon Jealous: 9 Poems of Love by the Sufi Mystic Poet Hafiz
“Let’s plot
To make the moon jealous.”
— Hafiz
Hafiz is the slightly lesser known of the great Sufi mystic poets. With Rumi, who is the Friend of the Beloved, being the most well read and adored. Rumi has been filling the hearts of all the divine beings with Love for hundreds of years now, and continues to gain popularity in the US. It’s time we paid some attention to another great Sufi mystic poet, Hafiz.
There’s something interesting that happens when you read Hafiz, it’s like we blossom to the possibilities of finding God, Love, or both. It’s like we can feel the subtle shift between left brain to right brain consciousness.
We use the left side of our brains to read these words and piece the poem together. The left side of our brain is in charge of our linear thinking processes; memory, math, speech, and knowing the order of things. Reading Hafiz completely turns the switch and activates the right side of your brain. Which is in charge of your being able to sense that Oneness shared with all beings. The right side of your brain is your link to God consciousness, Nirvana, Buddhahood, etc.
The ego resides in the left side of the brain, and tries to keep you from being at one with the world, because when you are at one with the world, the ego dies. The ego does not want to die, it wants continuity. The right brain is always alive, always continuous. Existing as the soul for eons. Inhabiting physical bodies for a period of time, then traversing back into the great beyond when the physical body dies. This is the cycle of life. This is how the universe works.
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s book, My Stroke of Insight, looks at the functions of the left and right sides of the brain from a neuroanatomist viewpoint — after suffering a stroke to the left side of her brain. My friend suffered a stroke in around the same area of the brain, and has had similar experiences to Dr. Bolte Taylor. This TED Talk by Dr. Bolte Taylor is a must watch for Yogis everywhere who would like to learn more about how their brains function. It is very insightful for what happens to the brain during yoga, meditation, and spiritual practices.
In sharing these poems by Hafiz, they become an exercise in consciously and intently switching back and forth between the left and right sides of the brain.
Come and share in Hafiz’s love of the Beloved. Get close to the edge, jump in and get completely wet. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to get out of the flowing river when it’s time. You only need to visit for a short while with Hafiz and his words: It doesn’t take much, so that, you may, sense God.
All of these poems can be found in the collection: The Gift (Compass), by Hafiz
YOU WERE BRAVE IN THAT HOLY WAR
You have done well
In the contest of madness.
You were brave in that holy war.
You have all the honorable wounds
Of one who has tried to find love
Where the Beautiful Bird
Does not drink.
May I speak to you
Like we are close
And locked away together?
Once I found a stray kitten
And I used to soak my fingers
In warm milk;
It came to think I was five mothers
On one hand.
Wayfarer,
Why not rest your tired body?
Lean back and close your eyes.
Come morning
I will kneel by your side and feed you.
I will so gently
Spread open your mouth
And let you taste something of my
Sacred mind and life.
Surely
There is something wrong
With your ideas of God.
O, surely there is something wrong
With your ideas of God
If you think
Our Beloved would not be so
Tender.
— Hafiz
- — — • — — -
IT WILL STRETCH OUT ITS LEG
All the classes you have sat in,
All the money you have paid
For “truth,”
Something must be wrong, though,
If your eye still wanders through the streets Acting like a beggar.
Why not try this:
Let all the fake teachers starve.
Picture one of the great masters
In your mind,
Put your lips against his cheek
Each morning.
Say, keep saying,
“Dear Beloved, pinch me.
I want proof
You’re near —
A love-bruise on my rump will do.”
The Friend is an unfathomable well
That knows everything;
Draw from that safe luminous sky.
Stay near this book,
It will stretch out its leg and
Trip you;
You’ll fall
Into
God.
— Hafiz
- — — • — — -
I AM FULL OF LOVE TONIGHT
I am full of love tonight
Come look into my eyes, and let’s go off
Sailing, my dear, on a long ocean ride.
This world will not touch you,
I will keep you snug upon my seat.
Let’s plot
To make the moon jealous
With a radiance leaping from your cheek.
I will be full of love tonight,
Come look into these ancient eyes!
And let’s go off sailing, my dear,
With our spirits intertwined.
Your body is just an old sandbar
In a speeding hourglass of time.
Love will turn the mouth of sorrow
Right side up.
Let your heart commence its destined
Laughing chime!
Hafiz will be brimful of love tonight,
Why ever be shy?
Come look into the playful eyes of my verse,
They are eternally branded,
Branded with
The Sun!
— Hafiz
- — — • — — -
BRING THE MAN TO ME
A Perfect One was traveling through the desert. He was stretched out around the fire one night And said to one of his close ones,
“There is a slave loose not far from us.
He escaped today from a cruel master.
His hands are still bound behind his back,
His feet are also shackled.
I can see him right now praying for God’s help. Go to him.
Ride to that distant hill;
About a hundred feet up and to the right
You will find a small cave.
He is there.
Do not say a single word to him.
Bring the man to me.
God requests that I personally untie his body And press my lips to his wounds.”
The disciple mounts his horse and within two hours
Arrives at the small mountain cave.
The slave sees him coming, the slave looks frightened.
The disciple, on orders not to speak,
Gestures toward the sky, pantomiming:
God saw you in prayer,
Please come with me,
A great Murshid has used his heart’s
divine eye
To know your whereabouts.
The slave cannot believe this story,
And begins to shout at the man and tries to run
But trips from his bindings.
The disciple becomes forced to subdue him.
Think of this picture as they now travel:
The million candles in the sky are lit and singing. Every particle of existence is a
dancing alter
That some mysterious force worships.
The earth is a church floor whereupon
In the middle of a glorious night
Walks a slave, weeping, tied to a rope behind a horse,
With a speechless rider
Taking him toward the unknown.
Several times with all of his might the slave
Tries to break free,
Feeling he is being returned to captivity.
The rider stops, dismounts — brings his eyes Near the prisoner’s eyes.
A deep kindness there communicates an unbelievable hope.
The rider motions — soon, soon you will be free. Tears roll down from the rider’s cheeks
In happiness for this man.
Anger, all this fighting and tormenting want, Mashuq,
God has seen you and sent a close one. Mashuq,
God has seen your heart in prayer
And sent Hafiz.
— Hafiz
- — — • — — -
TOO BEAUTIFUL
The fire
Has roared near you.
The most intimate parts of your body
Got scorched,
So
Of course you have run
From your marriages into a
Different House
That will shelter you
From embracing every aspect of Him.
God has
Roared near us.
The lashes on our heart’s eye got burnt.
Of course we have
Run away
From His
Sweet flaming breath
That proposed an annihilation
Too real,
Too
Beautiful.
— Hafiz
- — — • — — -
MY EYES SO SOFT
Don’t Surrender
Your loneliness so quickly.
Let it cut more
Deep.
Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can.
Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft,
My voice so
Tender,
My need of God
Absolutely
Clear.
— Hafiz
- — — • — — -
THE DIAMOND TAKES SHAPE
Some parrots
Have become so skilled with
The human voice
They could give a brilliant discourse
About freedom and God
And an unsighted man nearby might
Even begin applauding with
The thought:
I just heard jewels fall from a
Great saint’s mouth,
Though my Master used to say,
“The diamond takes shape slowly
With integrity’s great force,
And from
The profound courage to never relinquish love.”
Some parrots have become so skilled
With words,
The blind turn over their gold
And lives to caged
Feathers.
— Hafiz
- — — • — — -
DOG’S LOVE
All the crazy boys
Gather around their female
Counterpart,
When her canine beauty announces to the air “My body is ready to play its part
In this miracle of
Birth.”
Look what dedicated young men will do
For their chance moment
Of dancing ecstatic on their
Hind legs.
They will stay up all night
And howl.
They will forget about food for days and Feverishly pray in their own language.
They will growl, make serious threats,
Even bite each other, saying,
“She’s mine, all mine — watch out
You skinny fleabag.”
Listen, human lovers:
When did you last keep a vigil
Beseeching
Light?
When did you last fast, lose twenty pounds,
In hopes of embracing
God?
Hafiz will give you the unedited news today:
You will need to outdo all the noble acts
Of
Dog’s love.
— Hafiz
- — — • — — -
STAY WITH US
You
Leave
Our company when you speak
Of shame
And this makes
Everyone in the Tavern sad.
Stay with us
As we do the hardest work of rarely
Laying down
That pick and
Shovel
That will keep
Revealing our deeper kinship
With
God,
That will keep revealing
Our own divine
Worth.
You leave the company of the
Beloved’s friends
Whenever you speak of
Guilt,
And this makes
Everyone in the Tavern
Very sad.
Stay with us tonight
As we weave love
And reveal ourselves,
Reveal ourselves
As His precious
Garments.
— Hafiz
All of these poems can be found in the collection: The Gift (Compass), by Hafiz
