Happy Birthday Shaykha Fariha Fatima! —— Ghazal 1759 Vah cheh bi rang … Oh how nameless, how free I am! When will I see myself as I really am? Tell me your secrets here and now, you said. In this realm, I said, where is the here and now? How can my soul be still when I am whirling in stillness? My sea drowned in itself. What a wondrous, shoreless sea I am! Not in this world, not in the next I am. Where I am, both worlds disappear. Naught, I am free of profit and loss. How singular, I neither gain nor lose. I said: My Soul, you’re the light of my eyes. Where I am, he said, no need for eyes. That’s what you are, I said. Stop it! he said. No words can capture me. I said: Since you are more than tongue can tell, behold how eloquent I am without a tongue. Like the moon, without legs, I race through nothingness. See how fast I can run without legs! A voice called: Why so fast? Look into the hidden, find my true face. The moment I saw Shams of Tabriz I became a treasure, a gem, the rare pearl of the sea. —— Jalal al-Din Rumi – Divan-e-Shems Translated from the Persian by Iraj Anvar and Anne Twitty