' Weeds and Refuse '...

"Cast away your existence entirely,
For it is nothing but weeds and refuse.

Go, clear out your heart's chamber;
Arrange it as the abiding-place of the Beloved.

When you go forth, He will come ,
And to you, with self discarded,
He will reveal His beauty."



-Mahmud Shabistari
The Secret Rose Garden
Rendered form the Persian by Florence Lederer
Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 2002, p. 85