Intellect and Love
Oh no, an intellectual among her lovers?!
a beauty like her? Faugh! Impossible!
Keep the brainy ones far from her door,
keep the bathhouse dung smoke from the East Wind!
Sorry, no intellectuals admitted here....
but a lover? Ah, a hundred salaams!
Intellect deliberates, Intellect reflects ___
and meanwhile Love evaporates into the stratosphere.
By the time Intellect finds a camel for the Hajj,
Love has climbed Mt. Sinai.
Love comes and gags me : "Scribbler!
Forget mere verse. The starship departs!"
(Translated by Peter Lamborn Wilson)
a beauty like her? Faugh! Impossible!
Keep the brainy ones far from her door,
keep the bathhouse dung smoke from the East Wind!
Sorry, no intellectuals admitted here....
but a lover? Ah, a hundred salaams!
Intellect deliberates, Intellect reflects ___
and meanwhile Love evaporates into the stratosphere.
By the time Intellect finds a camel for the Hajj,
Love has climbed Mt. Sinai.
Love comes and gags me : "Scribbler!
Forget mere verse. The starship departs!"
(Translated by Peter Lamborn Wilson)



Comments on this journal
beautiful thanks for sharing
is this a translation of one of Rumi's - do you have any more of PLW's translations?? or links
thanks
enjoy!
Intellect could never justify that, it was the Love, which made him oblivious of the consequences and brought him to ultimate submission.
My favorite lines are
Intellect deliberates, Intellect reflects ___
and meanwhile Love evaporates into the stratosphere.
By the time Intellect finds a camel for the Hajj,
Love has climbed Mt. Sinai.
There can be too much of an intellect, but there can never be too much of Love.