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The Love-Teaching Glance

Go away pious ascetic.

          In your heart you have

neither burning nor the sighs

          that can ignite fires.


You always look to heaven,

          for in your eyes

you have no

          love-teaching glance.


You have sacrificed head and soul

          to “I” and “we”;

you have no hidden teaching

          other than this.


So often are you in mourning

          that you never

have time for festivity and

          new year celebration.


You don’t achieve any special grace

          with your night vigils

or from repeating “O God”

          so often.


You have no arrows like ours, which come

          from the sighing quiver of the heart

and which sew shut the mouth

          of the false claimant.


And you, Nurbakhsh,

          your heart is so enamored

from the Beloved’s love that you can’t tell

          day from night.

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