Dervish

Right hand to the heaven
Left hand to the earth

White garment the spirit
Black cloak is the dirt

Gravestone for a turban
Ascending up from its perch

The kiss of death from the master
Bowing for the rebirth

A rose tied in its coffin
Slow a petal unfurls

The planets down to the atoms
All orbit in turns

All things are in cycles
Each being returns

Love, the fruit of the spirit
The body, food for the worms

Invoking every rotation
And find what the master affirms

You are just here to remember
There is nothing to learn

Mankind in his glory
A clot that was brought to term

The intellects of the deniers
All emerged from a sperm

They continue the whirling
Present at every stage

The breath was blown into Adam
The secret flows in your veins

The reed that receives the breath
The perfect man is the ney

The higher that one ascends
The more he becomes a slave

Each turn is “make me a vessel
For your mercy to enter this plane”

For you have not become a dervish
Until your will is all beings are saved

The illusion of separation
When it dies then you have attained

Then there is no self to speak of
Like the ocean meeting the rain

When a drop falls to its surface
What drop is there that remains?

Those who pass in this matter
Say not that they have been slain

The martyrs yearn for this station
All descriptions in vain

Green birds in the garden
Chirping the greatest name

The fuqara are the wealthy
The sultans they are the slaves

Dust on the path of the Prophet
We raise our hands and we pray

Ya Hazrat Mawlana
Our Master, show us the way

Right hand to the heaven
Left hand to the earth

White garment the spirit
Black cloak is the dirt

Gravestone for a turban
Ascending up from its perch

The kiss of death from the master
Bowing to the rebirth