" I am totally lost in the folds of Love,
totally free of worry and care.

I have passed beyond the four qualities.
My heart has torn away the veil of pretense.

There was a time I circled with the nine spheres, rolling with the stars across the sky.
There was a time I stayed by his side—
I lived in his world
and he gave me everything.

With the best of intentions
I became a prisoner in this form.
How else did I get here?
What crime did I commit?
But I’d rather be in a prison with my Friend
than in a rosegarden all alone.

I came to this world
To have a sight of Joseph’s purity.
Like a baby born of its mother’s womb,
I was brought here with blood and tears.

People think they are born only once
But they have been here so many times.

In the cloak of this ragged body
I have walked countless paths.
How many times I have worn out this cloak!

With ascetics in the desert
I watched night turn into day.
With pagans in the temple
I slept at the foot of idols.

I’ve been a charlatan and a king;
I’ve been a healer, and fraught with disease.

I’ve been on my death-bed so many times. . . . Floating up like the clouds
Pouring down like the rain.

As a darvish I sought the dust of annihilation
but it never touched my robe.
So I gathered armfuls of roses
in this faded garden of existence.

I am not of wind nor fire
nor of the stormy seas.
I am not formed out of painted clay.
I am not even Shams-e Tabriz—

I am the essence of laughter,
I am pure light.

Look again if you see me—
It’s not me you have seen! "

― Rumi , Rumi: In the Arms of the Beloved