Let the Lover be disgraceful, crazy,
absentminded. Someone sober
will worry about events going badly.
Let the Lover be.
Poetic version by Coleman Barks and John Moyne
"Unseen Rain - Quatrains of Rumi"
Threshold Books, 1986
The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,
we worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.
Poetic version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva "A Garden Beyond Paradise - The Mystical Poetry of Rumi"
Bantam Books, 1992
All year round the lover is mad
Unkempt, lovesick, and in despair
Without love there is nothing but grief
In love... what else matters?
Translation by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1999
