A LOVING HEART

Dear friends, listen to me now,

Love’s like the shining sun,

A heart without love

Is nothing more than a stone.

What rises up in a stony heart?

No matter how softly it begins,

The tongue’s soft words

Soon turn to war when poison spews.

A loving heart burns and burns,

Then it melts like wax in the flame,

But a heart that is hard as stone

Is like winter, dark and mean and cold.

In the service of this Sultan,

In the presence of this Lord of might,

The star of all lovers shines

Like a faithful, royal servant.

Now Yunus, let your fears vanish

While flowering illusions of this world fade,

A true man first needs love, and from

Then on he is no different from a dervish.

* * *

(From: Yunus Emre: His Life and Selected Poems written and edited by Faruk Dilaver)