without cause or calculation

 

 

 

A lover doesn't figure the odds.

He figures he came clean from God

as a gift without a reason,

he gives without cause

or calculation or limit.

 

A conventionally religious person

behaves a certain way

to achieve salvation.

 

A lover gambles everything, the self,

the circle around the zero! He or she

cuts and throws it all away.

 

This is beyond

any religion.

 

Lovers do not require from God any proof,

or any text, nor do they knock on a door

to make sure this is the right street.

 

They run,

and they run.

 

 

 

 

~ Rumi

translation: Coleman Barks, 

from: Feeling the Shoulder of the Lion