” The lips of the one I love are my perpetual pleasure:
The Lord be praised, for my heart’s desire is attained
O Fate, cherish my darling close to your breast:
Present now the golden wine-cup, now the rubies of those lips.
They talk scandle about us, and say we are drunks—
The silly old men, the elders lost in their error.
But we have done penance on the pious man’s behalf,
And ask God’s pardon for what the religious do.
O my dear, how can I speak of being apart from you?
The eyes know a hundred tears, and the soul has a hundred sighs.
I’d not have even an infidel suffer the torment your beauty has caused
To the cypress which envies your body, and the moon that’s outshone by your face.
Desire for your lips has stolen from Hafiz’ thought
His evening lectionary, and reciting the Book at dawn.”
—–Hafiz, Translated from Persian by Peter Avery and John Heath-Stubbs
” The goal of the journeyer is the Beloved.
The goal of the Beloved is the journey.”
—-Hazrat Inayat Khan
“From my lips to God’s ears, ” May the love, gratutude, and ability to cherish the Divine flow freely from every molecule within us and reach you with the fragrance of love.