If you don't sacrifice your soul

On the path of love,

Are you a true lover?

If you don't press hard

For union with the Friend,

Are you a true lover?

If you don't strengthen

Your love for the Friend,

Forgetting all desire and attachment,

Are you a true lover?

Love needs no witness,

Not every soul rises up to heaven,

If you don't burn

In love's fire like a moth,

Are you a true lover?

If you don't give up those desires

Of the self and you don't

Drink from the cup of love,

If you have no determination

On the path to the Friend,

Are you a true lover?

If you don't worship by day

And by night, devoting yourself to God,

If you don't remember God in a crowd,

Are you a true lover?

Now Yunus, be patient

In your suffering for this Friend,

If your heart is not pierced

By the arrow of love,

Are you a true lover?

* * *

(From: Yunus Emre: His Life and Selected Poems written and edited by Faruk Dilaver)