Friday, June 12, 2009

Three passions have governed my life:

1. The longings for love,.

2. The search for knowledge.

3. And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen.
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision.
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart.
Of children in famine, of victims tortured.
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, And I too suffer.

This has been my life; I found it worth living.

Azmi - Out!