As Water Flows 

By Jalaluddin Rumi

I should run, run to catch up in this race;
I should become nothing, I should perish,
to reach the embrace of the Soul of the souls. 

I’m overjoyed, overjoyed; I’ve become a flame; 
I should burn down the house,
I should go out into the desert. 

I should turn to dust, turn to dust, till You make me 
   verdant; 
I should turn to water and prostrate before the rose 
   garden. 

I fell out of Heaven shivering like a snowflake; 
will I be safe and sound when I reach the ground? 

The celestial sphere is a place of nobility,
the earth a place of fatality;
I’ll be free from both of these perils when I reach the 
    Presence. 

This earth and atmosphere
are the essence of denial and emptiness.
I have come into the heart of heresy to achieve
    faithfulness. 

The Grace of the Cosmos favors a balanced love; 
may my face turn to gold coin to be weighed in the
    Balance. 

God’s Mercy is water; it flows to the lowest;
I will become humble earth to be embraced by the 
    Merciful. 

No physician gives pills and remedies to the healthy;
I will become all pain, if I must,
to be given the Remedy.

By Jalaluddin Rumi (Divani Shamsi Tabrizi 1400), translated by Kabir Helminski and Ahmad Rezwani, in Love’s Ripening: Rumi on the Heart’s Journey (Shambhala Publications, 2008)