"Being a lover means your heart must ache,
No sickness hurts as much as when hearts break,
The lover's ailment's totally unique,
Love is the astrolabe of all we seek,
Whether you feel divine or earthly love,
Ultimately we're destined for above.
To capture love whatever words I say
Makes me ashamed whenever love arrives my way,
While explanation sometimes makes things clear;
True love through silence only one can hear;
The pen would smoothely write the things it knew
But when it came to love it split in two,
A donkey stuck in mud is logic's fate,
Love's nature only love can demonstrate.
( Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi, Masnavi, Book 1 , 109,116 )
Just prior to this line is the opening section of Rumi's first story
in the Masnavi, about a king who fell in love with a maiden.
However,she was unhappy with him and began to look and act
sickly. A wise physician came and discovered that she was actually
physically healthy, but heart-sick from being in love with someone
else, whom she grievously missed. The scent of every (kind of)
firewood is made evident from the (type of) smoke (it produces).
He saw from her (type of) misery that it was the misery of the
heart; (her) body was well, but she was "the prisoner of the heart" .
The hidden nature and quality of a thing is indicated by the effects which it produces. Being in love is made manifest by soreness of heart.
"Love is the astrolabe" means that only love can "measure"
and understand the depths of Divine mysteries.
The astrolabe is an ancient astronomical device, an instrument for
measuring the altitude of the stars and solving the problems of
spherical astronomy. Hence
our Love and intellect are like the astrolabe: by this means we
may know the nearness of the Allah(God).
Being a lover eventually guides us to the Source of Love which is Allah(God), the Only Beloved.
All earthly beauty is but the reflection of Heavenly Beauty, and as the
reflection fades away when we turn our eyes towards the Light whence it
came.
The
nature of Love is revealed much more brightly and clearly when
expressed in a non-verbal way. The poet explains
the meaning of Love (expressed) without the tongue is much
clearer: the signs of love, such as agitation, pallor, and tears,
speak for themselves. The tongue of inward feeling is more eloquent than the
tongue of discourse.
The discursive reason which maintains a distinction between the subject and
object of thought, cannot possibly comprehend or describe the
nature of divine Love. This is a mystery that Love reveals to the
lover by immediate experienced . "He who doesn't taste, doesn't know".
