If anyone asks you to say who you are,
say without hesitation, soul
within soul within soul.
There's a pearl diver who does not know
how to swim! No matter.
Pearls are handed him on the beach.
We lovers laugh to hear, "This should be
more that and that more this,"
coming from people sitting in a wagon
tilted in a ditch.
Going in search of the heart, I found
a huge rose, and roses under all our feet!
How to say this to someone who denies it?
The robe we wear is the sky's cloth.
Everything is soul and flowering.
~ Rumi
Coleman Barks translation
art by Hilary Williams
