What is this sorrow and separation

For someone seeking union with the Beloved,

In the eyes of such a person, what is the distance

For a being who knows the Friend is very near?

If you become one with the Friend

You must give up the world,

Let's see what preparation you have to make,

To make way along this path.

If you can reach this love,

If you surrender your life,

Surrender your soul to love,

If you witness the Friend without veils

And renounce your existence,

What is this illusion of existence?

Knowledge veils the eye,

The hereafter belongs to this world's reckoning,

Here we have love's book,

What is that page being read?

 O wake up from the dream of the world,

Discover the traps of the nafs

Which are your worthless desires,

Move up to the station of the Friend,

Is there any state better than that?

You say you find the truth with your eyes,

Abandon these claims of mere appearance

And come to the realm of meaning,

The sun gives its light everywhere by day,

What does this oil lamp burn at night?

Yunus seems to belong to Him,

God permeates both worlds,

If you travel to the Friend

Come closer to me, what are

The houris and mansions of paradise?

* * *

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