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The Tavern’s Threshold

I have settled down

          at the tavern’s threshold;

I have settled down

          away from the people of the world.


Always dead drunk

          from remembering the Friend,

I have settled down,

          free from all chatter and commotion.


For a while I wandered from place to place,

          guided by the heart in search of Her;

now for Her sake, I have abandoned all movement

          and settled down.


The heart was trapped

          in the lasso of Her two tresses;

I have settled down

          in Her bewitching forelock’s curl.


Those drunken eyes

          have robbed me of rest;

crazed, I have settled down

          in the curls of Her tresses.


Like a moth, my existence was burned away

          by the candle flame of Her face;

I am now ash and have settled down

          in her lush hair.


My Beloved

          asked about Nurbakhsh —

I said, “It is for Your sake that

          I have settled down without him.”

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