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"Breadmaking"
There was a feast. The king
was heartily in his cups.
He saw a learned scholar walking by.
"Bring him in, and give him
some of this fine wine."
Servants rushed out and brought the man
to the king's table, but he was not
receptive. "I had rather drink poison!
I have never tasted wine and never will!
Take it away from me!"
He kept on with these loud refusals,
disturbing the atmosphere of the feast.
This is how it sometimes is
at God's table.
Someone who has heard about ecstatic love,
but never tasted it, disrupts the banquet.
If there were a secret passage
from his ear to his throat, everything
in him would change. Initiation would occur.
As it is, he's all fire and no light,
all husk and no kernel.
The king gave order.
do what you must!"
"Cupbearer,
This is how your invisible guide acts,
the chess champion across from you
that always wins. He cuffed
the scholar's head and said,
"Taste!"
And, "Again!"
The cup was drained,
and the intellectual started singing
and telling ridiculous jokes.
He joined the garden, snapping his fingers
and swaying. Soon, of course,
he had to pee.
He went out, and there, near the latrine,
was a beautiful woman, one of the king's harem.
His mouth hung open. He wanted her!
Right then, he wanted her!
And she was not unwilling.
They fell to, on the ground.
You've seen a baker rolling dough
He kneads it gently at first,
then more roughly.
He pounds it on the boards.
It softly groans under his palms.
Now he spreads it out
and rolls it flat.
Then he bunches it,
and rolls it all the way out again,
thin. Now he adds water,
and mixes it well.
Now salt,
and a little more salt.
Now he shapes it delicately
to its final shape,
then slides it into the oven,
which is already hot.
You remember breadmaking!
This is how your desire
tangles with a desired one.
And it's not just a metaphor
for a man and a woman making love.
Warriors in battle do like this too.
A great mutual embrace is always happening
between the eternal and what dies,
between essence and accident.
The sport has different rules
in every case, but it's basically
the same, and remember:
the way you make love is the way
God will be with you. ...
-- Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks)
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