translated from the Farsi by Haleh Liza Gafori
Why paint night over nightless day?
Every religion has Love,
but Love has no religion.
Love is an ocean—
no borders no shores.
Drown there and you won’t lament it.
The drowned have no regrets.
From Gold: Poems by Rumi (New York Review Books, 2022). Translated from the Persian by Haleh Liza Gafori. Copyright © 2022 by Haleh Liza Gafori. Used with the permission of the author.