Allah, God, Creator, come drink from the gourd

Be intimate with intimates, let otherness disappear

Watch the garden of the heart vigilantly so that water buffalos don’t enter it

Be extremely careful or else you’ll make the lamp of the light tower fly away!

Don’t burden the ant with the elephant’s load, it cannot possibly bear it

Don’t expect the flint stone to have the worth of the ruby or the pearl

You claim to have gone on the pilgrimage, when could you possibly have gone there?

Even birds cannot cross so many mountains and ravines without a guide

A pilgrim’s work is to reconcile hearts

The heart is God’s house, protect it from that which commands to evil

Know yourself, know what you are, God is in you, where are you?

If you desire to know the truth, go beyond black and white

Don’t say “this world” and “that world”, don’t distinguish friend from foreigner

Don’t attempt to participate in a distant war, abandon this lifeless magician of a world

Don’t talk gibberish like children all the time

If you don’t practice humility you’ll suffer the fate of Mansur [Hallaj]

The human is the eternal light, she is not sick, she is the physician

If you too are human, grasp this secret!

Those who become lovers on this path put their lives on the line

If you too are a lover, don’t just watch from the side, jump in!

If you’re searching for the human, she is not separate from the Truth

Her attribute is identical with her absolute self, her cloak is made of the four elements

Don’t call your intellect an intellect, don’t consider your words to be trustworthy

Because you cannot liberate yourself from that which commands to evil

The only talent of Kaygusuz is to eat roast meat and sweets

Don’t expect any other talent from this destitute soul!

–Kaygusuz Abdal (1341-1444), a dervish poet