Lean your cheek | Lean your cheek, rest a moment

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by Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (1207 - 1273)

Translation © by Bruce Adolphe (b. 1955)

Lean your cheek

Language: English after the Persian (Farsi)

Lean your cheek, rest a moment
on my drunken cheek
So I may forget the war and cruelty inside me.
You have opened the seven gates of heaven;
Now lay Your hand on my tightened heart.
All I have to offer is an illusion: my self.
I’m not asking for some sweet pistachio candy;
But your everlasting love.
Fifty times I have said, “Heart, cease hunting.
Step into this net.”

Authorship:

by Bruce Adolphe (b. 1955), "Lean your cheek", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Persian (Farsi) by Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (1207 - 1273) [text unavailable]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Bruce Adolphe (b. 1955), "Lean your cheek", first performed 2001 [soprano and piano], from A Thousand Years of Love, no. 5. [ sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2018-10-09
Line count: 10
Word count: 70