once again
i broke free of the chains
of the wicked traps
of this world
once again
by your youthful love
i was saved from
this fraud-filled wizard
we call life
non-stop
running day and night
i finally had to cut myself off
from this deadly routine
leaping free as an arrow
from the grip of the cosmic bow
now i have no more fear
of grief and anxiety
i've learned to compete
with death itself
i lived through my wits
for forty years
now at sixty-two
finally hunted down
i am free from struggle
bread becomes blood
blood transforms to milk
and now
that I have my wisdom teeth
i am in no need for more milk
-- Translation by Nader Khalili
"Rumi, Fountain of Fire",
Burning Gate Press, Los Angeles, 1994.