Who am I?

"Spring" by Neha

What is to be done ? for I do not recognize myself,

I am neither Christian nor Jew, nor Gabr nor Muslim,

I am not of the east, nor of the west, nor of the land, nor of the sea.

I am not of nature’s mint, nor of the circling heavens.

I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;

I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity,

I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsin;

I am not of the kingdom of Iraqain, nor of the country of Khorasan,

I am not of this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell.

I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwan.

My place is the placeless, my trace is the traceless,

’Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved,

I have put quality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;

One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call,

He is the first, he is the last, he is the outward, he is the inward;

I know none other except ‘Ya Hu’ and ‘Ya man Hu’.

If there be any lover in the world, —’tis I.

If there be any believer, infidel, or hermit,— ’tis I.

The wine-dregs, the cup-bearer, the minstrel, the harp, and the music,

The beloved, the candle, the drink and the joy of the drunken,—’tis I.

The two-and-seventy creeds and sects in the world

Do not really exist: I swear by God that every creed and sect—’tis I.

Earth and air and water and fire, knowest thou what they are?

Earth and air and water and fire, nay, body and soul too—’tis I.

Truth and Falsehood, good and evil, ease and difficulty from first to last,

Knowledge and learning and asceticism and piety and faith—’tis I.

The fire of Hell, be assured, with its flaming limbs,

Yes, and Paradise and Eden and the Houris—’tis I.

This earth and heaven with all that they hold,

Angels, Peris, Genies and Mankind—’tis I.

-Rumi