All Secret Things

Lesson 344: All Secret Things

On your feet, my friends! Let us go!
It is time to leave this world.
A drum is beating from heaven, calling us, calling us.
Look: the camel-driver's awake, preparing the caravan –
He's hungry to set out. Travelers, why go on sleeping?
All round us swells the ringing of bells, the tumult of farewell;
Each moment, a spirit takes wing to the Place beyond place.
And from those stellar lights, those vast blue vaults of heaven,
Mysterious figures appear to reveal all secret things.

- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi

(Translated by Andrew Harvey from A Year of Rumi)