The Souls Friend
Listen to your essential self, the Friend.
When you feel longing, be patient,
and also prudent, moderate with eating and drinking.
Be like a mountain in the wind.
Do you notice how it moves? There are sweet
illusions that arrive to lure you away.
Make some excuse to them, “I have indigestion,”
or “I need to meet my cousin.”
You fish, the baited hook may be fifty
or even sixty gold pieces, but is it really
worth your freedom in the ocean?
When traveling, stay close to your bag.
I am the bag that holds what you love.
You can be separated from me!
Live carefully in the joy of this friendship.
Don’t think, But those others love me so.
Some invitations sound like the fowler’s whistle
to the quail, friendly, but not quite
how you remember the call of your soul’s Friend.
From The Book of Love
Translated by Coleman Barks
