Don’t go home.
Stay with me tonight.
Little by little, slowly but surely,
my breath will lead you to insanity.
You’ll be freed from the mind.
Then suddenly you’ll go crazy.

You follow your fancy,
come to me,
and decide to leave?
What a shame.
What a disgrace.
Is your bond no stronger than this?

Worse than that,
if gold came to find you,
what a great mistake that would be.
You don’t deserve any gold,
not even gold the size of a kernel of barley.

Don’t run because you fear death.
Run in order to get somewhere.
O my soul, run to reach the sacred place,
not because you fear the Bedouin.

Stay with me every night until dawn.
One evening you’ll see the rising moon
that will free you from your journey
and the bad company you’ve been keeping.

Anyone can see the moon’s face from a distance.
How lucky is the one who takes the moon hostage.

Like the sun, the moon too
threatens you at the beginning.
He draws his sword:
“If you don’t go away from here,
I’ll cut off your head!"

But when he sees that you stay,
he changes his tune:
“You are brave and beautiful.
You deserve me,” he says.

We should get together.
No longer you, no longer me,
the two of us become as one.
When we become one,
the eye that sees double
will go blind.

from “The Forbidden Rumi” by Ergin & Johnson