The Guest

---

When my friend is away from me,
I am depressed;
nothing in the daylight delights me,
sleep at night gives no rest.
Who can I tell about this?
The night is dark and long ...
hours go by...
because I am alone,
I sit up suddenly, fear goes through me ....
 
Kabir says: Listen, my friend
there is one thing in the world that satisfies,
and that is a meeting with the Guest.

---

My body and my mind are in depression
because you are not with me.
How much I love you and want you in my house!
When I hear people describe me as your bride
I look sideways ashamed,
because I know that far inside us
we have never met.
Then what is this love of mine?
 
I don't really care about food,
I don't really care about sleep
I am restless indoors and outdoors.
The bride wants her lover
as much as a thirsty man wants water.
And how will I find someone
who will take a message to the Guest from me?
How restless Kabir is all the time!
How much he wants to see the Guest!

---

Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains
and the maker of canyons and pine mountains!
All seven oceans are inside and hundreds of millions of stars.
The acid that tests gold is there,
and the one who judges jewels.
And the music from the strings that no one touches,
and the source of all water.
 
If you want the truth, I will tell you the truth:
Friend, listen: the God whom I love is inside.
Why should we two ever want to part?
Just as the leaf of the water rhubarb lives
floating on the water, we live as the great one and the little one.
As the owl opens his eyes all night to the moon,
we live as the great one and the little one.
 
This love between us goes back to the first humans:
it cannot be annihilated.
 
Here is Kabir's idea :
as the river gives itself into the ocean,
what is inside me moves inside you.

---

My inside, listen to me,
the greatest spirit, the Teacher, is near,
wake up, wake up!
Run to his feet-
he is standing close to your head right now.
 
You have slept for millions and millions of years.
Why not wake up this morning?
 
There is a flag no one sees blowing in the sky-temple.
A blue cloth has been stretched up
it is decorated with the moon and many jewels.
The sun and the moon can be seen in that place;
when looking at that, bring your mind down to silence.
 
I will tell you the truth:
the man who has drunk from that liquid
wanders around like someone insane.

---

The Guest is inside you, and also inside me;
you know the sprout is hidden inside the seed.
We are all struggling; none of us has gone far.
Let your arrogance go, and look around inside.
The blue sky opens out farther and farther,
the daily sense of failure goes away,
the damage I have done to myself fades,
a million suns come forward with light,
when I sit firmly in that world.
I hear bells ringing that no one has shaken,
inside love there is more joy than we know of,
rain pours down, although the sky is clear of clouds,
there are whole rivers of light.
The universe is shot through in all parts
by a single sort of love.
 
How hard it is to feel that joy in all our four bodies!
Those who hope to be reasonable about it fail.
The arrogance of reason has separated us from that love
With the, word `reason' you already feel miles away.
How lucky Kabir is, that surrounded by all this joy
he sings inside his own little boat.
His poems amount to one soul meeting another.
These songs are about forgetting dying and loss.
They rise above both coming in and going out.




"Kabir" (15th Century)
by Kabir
(15th Century) Timeline

English version by
Robert Bly

Original Language
Hindi
http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/K/Kabir/index.htm