The Seed Market

The Seed Market
by Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī

Can you find another market like this?
Where, with your one rose
you can buy hundreds of rose gardens?

Where,
for one seed
get a whole wilderness?

For one weak breath,
a divine wind?

You’ve been fearful
of being absorbed in the ground,
or drawn up by the air.

Now, your waterbead lets go
and drops into the ocean,
where it came from.

It no longer has the form it had,
but it’s still water.
The essence is the same.

This giving up is not a repenting.
It’s a deep honoring of yourself.

When the ocean comes to you
as a lover,
marry at once,
quickly,
for God’s sake!

Don’t postpone it!
Existence has no better gift.

No amount of searching will find this.

A perfect falcon,
for no reason
has landed on your shoulder,
and become yours.