When I die

When I die

When I die

when my coffin is being taken out

you must never think

I am missing this world

don't shed any tears

don't lament

or feel sorry

i'm not falling

into a monster's abyss

when you see my corpse is being carried

 don't cry for my leaving

 i'm not leaving

 i'm arriving at eternal love

when you leave me in the grave

 don't say goodbye

 remember a grave is

 only a curtain

 for the paradise behind

you'll only see me descending

 into a grave

 now watch me rise

 how can there be an end

 when the sun sets

 or the moon goes down

it looks like the end

 it seems like a sunset

 but in reality it is a dawn

 when the grave locks you up

 that is when your soul is freed

have you ever seen a seed fallen to earth

 not rise with a new life

 why should you doubt the rise

 of a seed named human

have you ever seen a bucket

 lowered into a well

 coming back empty

 why lament for a soul

 when it can come back

 like Joseph from the well

when for the last time

 you close your mouth

 your words and soul 

will belong to the world

 of no place no time

~RUMI, ghazal number 911, translated May 18, 1992, by Nader Khalili.