I am a fatherless pearl unrecognized by the sea.

By Yunus Emre

I am a fatherless pearl unrecognized by the sea. 
I am the drop that contains the ocean.

Its waves are amazing. It’s beautiful to be a sea 
hidden within an infinite drop.

When Majnun spoke Layla’s name, 
he broke the meter of his poem.
I was both Layla and Majnun who adored her.

Mansur* did not speak idly of Unity.
He was not kidding when he said, “I am Truth.”

In this world of many,
You are Joseph and I am Jacob.
In the universe of Unity,
there is neither Joseph nor Canaan.

That my name is Yunus
is a problem in this material world.
But if you ask my real name, 
it is the Power behind all powers. 

Yunus Emre, tr. Kabir Helminski and Refik Algan in The Drop That Became The Sea: Lyric Poems of Yunus Emre (Shambhala, 2000). Copyright © 1989