Your Face
You may be planning departure, as a human soul
leaves the world taking almost all its sweetness
with it. You saddle your horse.
You must be going. Remember you have friends
here as faithful as grass and sky.
Have I failed you? Possibly you’re
angry. But remember our nights of conversation,
the well work, yellow roses by ocean,
the longing, the archangel Gabriel
saying So be it. Shamsi Tabriz, your face,
is what every religion tries to remember.
From The Book of Love
Translated by Coleman Barks
