secret places

.

.

Lovers find secret places inside this violent world

where they make transactions with beauty.

.

Reason says, Nonsense.

I have walked and measured the walls here.

There are no places like that.

.

Love says, There are.

.

Reason set up a market and begins doing business.

Love has more hidden work.

.

Hallaj steps away from the pulpit

and climbs the stairs of the gallows.

.

Lovers feel a truth inside themselves

that rational people keep denying.

.

It is reasonable to say, Surrender is just an idea

that keeps people from living their lives.

.

Love responds, No.

This thinking is what is dangerous.

.

Using language obscures what Shams came to give.

out of low word-clouds into burning silence.

.

~ Rumi

from The Big Red Book

translations by Coleman Barks