The Quintessence of Loneliness

I am like a heroin addict
In my longing for a sublime state,

For that ground of Conscious Nothing,
Where the Rose ever
Blooms.

Oh, the Friend
Has done me a great favor
and has so thoroughly ruined my life,

What else would you expect
Seeing God would do!

Out of the ashes of this broken frame
There is a noble rising son pining for death,
Because,

Since we first met, Beloved,
I have become a foreigner
To every world
Except that one
In which there is only You
Or - Me.

Now that the heart has held
That which can never be touched
My subsistence is a blessed
Desolation.

And from that I cry out for more loneliness.

I am lonely.
I am so lonely, dear Beloved,
For the quintessence of Loneliness,

For what is more alone than God?

Hafiz,
What is more pure and alone,

Magnificently Sovereign,
Than God.


~Hafiz (1320-1389)
from "The Gift", Poems by Hafiz, translation by Daniel Ladinsky