O FOOLISH heart,

Thy carelessness how can I comprehend?

Hast thou no strength, no will, to tear apart

The barrier that divides me from my Friend?

See how the budding flower,

Emerging fair from out her torn green dress,

Is beauteous in the garden for her hour,

As Yusuf in his youthful loveliness.

Go, breeze of spring,

Haste to tell Yakub, blinded by his tears,

The tidings that shall end his sorrowing

And lift the darkness from his troubled years.

Treading love’s path so long,

Under such heavy burdens did I bow,

At last my chastened heart has grown so strong,

No task, no pain, can bend my spirit now.

O fortunate,

More blessed than Alexander’s lot is mine.

Come to me, O ye thirsty: this my fate—

To know the giver of celestial wine.

I have wiped clean my heart

From actions, yea, and from desires as well,

And yearn alone for peace, to have no part

At Judgment Day, either in Heaven or Hell.