The Beloved is Enough

A person who sees Your face once
Will never forget You all his life,
On his prayer beads he recites only Your name,
He can't remember anything except You.

If an ascetic, always in prayer to You,
Should catch sight of You once,
He will forget his prayer
And prostrate before You alone.

If his eyes happen to fall upon You
With sugar in his mouth,
He forgets the sugar, he no longer needs
To chew and swallow that kind of sweetness.

If they ask me what You are worth,
Because of my love for You,
I'd say the wealth of the two worlds
Would not be enough to describe it.

If these two worlds were nothing but
Vineyards and gardens of roses,
No rose would grow in any garden
With a fragrance better than Yours.

For lovers the Beloved is enough,
He is the scent of roses and sweet basil,
The Beloved stands before
The lover every instant, every moment.

When the sound of Israfil's trumpet
Makes everything rise from the grave,
My ear will still hear nothing more
Than the pure resonance of Your voice.

If Venus herself were to come down
To earth and sing her sweetest songs,
A lover's gaze would never turn to look,
Since You are all the lover's joy.

What can the wealth of this world
Or the next mean without You?
Let no one doubt both worlds
Are sacrificed to You.

If the houris of the eight heavens
Come to me adorned in their beauty,
My heart will never accept
Any other love but Yours.

Whatever exists in this world
Will be there in the hereafter,
When houris and the servants of paradise come,
The lover should not reach out to them.

Ever since Yunus fell in love with You,
Happiness has come to his soul,
At every moment he is reborn,
His life is always young.

-Yunus Emre