"Where is Your Flower?"

Rely on Rumi, 13th century Persian poet, for our times: 

 

Man, man, man,

what kind of lightning are you, setting farms on fire? 

What kind of cloud are you, raining down stones?

 

What kind of hunter?

Caught in your own trap—

a thief stealing from your own house.

You’re sixty years old, you’re seventy years old, 

and you’re still uncooked?

Still won’t let Love’s flames near, 

won’t let them burn you up?

Enthralled by stuff and status, 

the crown, the turban, the king’s beard—

thorns pricking your hands,

but where is your flower?

 

Gazing in the mirror, 

you tilt your hat like a crescent moon—

but where is your light?

Poem translated by Haleh Liza Gafori and kindly shared by Pádraig Ó Tuama.