KABIR

I VOTE FOR YOU FOR GOD

translated by Daniel Ladinsky in "The Gift"

When your eyes have found the strength
To constantly speak to the world
All that is most dear
To your own
Life,

When your hands, feet, and tongue
Can perform in that rare unison
That comforts this longing earth
With the knowledge

Your soul,
Your soul has been groomed
In His city of love;

And when you can make others laugh
With jokes
That belittle no one
And your words always unite,

Hafiz
Does vote for you.

Hafiz will vote for you to be
The minister of every country in
This universe.

Hafiz does vote for you my dear.
I vote for you
To be
God.

Daniel Ladinsky has devoted five years of his life to producing fresh translations of the poetry of the great fourteenth-century Sufi poet, who, according to Coleman Barks, translator of the Essential Rumi, is "one of the rare mysteries of world literature." His two self-published collections of his translations, I Heard God Laughing and The Subject Tonight Is Love, have sold over 50,000 copies in just a few years. The Gift is a stunning and comprehensive collection of these wondrous spiritual poems.