Fasting

Fasting 

There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness.

We are lutes, no more, no less. If the soundbox

Is stuffed full of anything, no music.

If the brain and the belly are burning clean

With fasting, every moment a new song comes out of the fire.

The fog clears, and new energy makes you

Run up the steps in front of you.

Be emptier and cry like reed instruments cry.

Emptier, write secrets with the reed pen.

When you’re full of food and drink, an ugly metal

Statue sits where your spirit should. When you fast,

Good habits gather like friends who want to help.

Fasting is Solomon’s ring. Don’t give it

To some illusion and lose your power,

But even if you have, if you’ve lost all will and control,

They come back when you fast, like soldiers appearing

Out of the ground, pennants flying above them.

A table descends to your tents,

Jesus’ table,

Expect to see it, when you fast, this table

Spread with other food, better than the broth of cabbages.

-Rumi, The Essential Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks