Tell me, is sugar sweeter
Or He who makes sugar cane?
Beauty of the moon is better
Or He who makes it wax and wane?

Leave all the moons behind
Put sugar out of your mind
In Him another you’ll find
He makes another kind of grain.

O mind you may be wise
In knowledge and insight may rise
Or is it better to prize
He who makes the mind insane?

Body, soul, mind and heart
With power will make a start
Yet in a drop, with art
A hundred eyes will entertain.

O love, O tumultuous love
O restless bleeding dove
This fire from above
Makes love in your heart reign.

With His love I am raw
I am confused and in awe
Sometimes my flames withdraw
Sometimes consumed and slain.

The ocean of loving grace
Traces the lover’s face
A drop of thought will replace
A thousand pearls will remain.

O Shams-e Tabriz, my pain
A hundred ways my heart would drain
Sometimes a blade, cuts my vein
Sometimes the shield I urge in vain.

Ó Shahriar Shahriari
Los Angeles, CA
May 24, 1999