Once I cast off my existence
at the feet of the heart,
I became a stranger to the self
but acquainted with the heart.
Everyone faces some direction to pray:
mine is love,
and its sanctuary is the ambience
of the heart.
Now that I’ve emptied
the heart’s chamber,
may the Beloved
step inside.
The heart is not that organ
in your chest;
it is the most sublime throne,
where God is found.
In the cage of the body, no one ever witnessed
the bird of the soul.
In the prison of the spirit, one cannot find
the phoenix of the heart.
Many have been sacrificed
on this path.
Many a lover’s soul has been sacrificed
for the heart’s sake.
Since Nurbakhsh departed from the domain
of “I” and “you,”
he has been resting contentedly
in the sublime sanctuary of the heart.