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Love came by Abu-Said Abil-Kheir (967 - 1049) Timeline English version by Peter Lamborn Wilson and Nasrollah Pourjavady Original Language Persian/Farsi Muslim / Sufi 11th Century Love came      flowed like blood      beneath skin, through veins emptied me of my self      filled me      with the Beloved till every limb      every organ was seized      and occupied till only      my name remains.      the rest is It.     -- from The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry, Translated by Peter Lamborn Wilson / Translated by Nasrollah Pourjavady Amazon.com   / Photo by fazen /	Themes   Lover and Beloved         Recommended Books The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry, Translated by Peter Lamborn Wilson / Translated by Nasrollah Pourjavady Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition, Translated by David Fideler / Translated by Sabrineh Fideler The Mystics of Islam, by Reynold A. Nicholson Nobody, Son of Nobody: Poems of Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir, Translated by Vraje Abramian Under the Sufi's Cloak: Stories of Abu Said and His Mystical Teaching, by Mohammad Ali Jamnia / Mojdeh Bayat
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

I really like the visceral start to this poem.

Love came
     flowed like blood
     beneath skin, through veins

It's so physical, even slightly disturbing. Sheikh Abu-Said Abil-Kheir wants to literally get under your skin with those opening lines.

But what is it that has taken over the very blood and organs of our body? Love.

When deep mystics speak of love, they aren't talking about vague and all-too-fleeting emotional states. When you are truly flooded by that foundational love -- let's capitalize it and call it Love -- there is something very tangible that is experienced. It is physical. The whole body at every level, "every limb / every organ", every cell, in fact, suddenly feels alive in a way previously unknown. There is a powerful sense of alignment, as if each cell was an iron filing exposed to a powerful magnet, all lining up harmoniously along hidden lines of force. Something alchemical is happening in the body.

till only
     my name remains.
     the rest is It.

And the small self, what we might call the ego-self, seems to fade away. Although you are emptied of that isolated sense of self, you aren't left empty. Instead, you are filled up, but with something much wider and all-embracing -- a sense of identity too open to be called "me." People may look at you and see the same face, call you by the same name, but those relate to the ego identity, when in truth only that loving presence remains, contentedly witnessing the world through your eyes.

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
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