Tonight in Lebanon…

While out on the town tonight in Beirut, my friends and I found ourselves exchanging medieval Sufi poems to the accompaniment of an ecstatic oud. My favorite verses were the ones below by Amir Khusraw, a 13th century Sufi poet and musician, who was the “father of Qawwali” and a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi…

Khusrau darya prem ka, ulti wa ki dhaar,
Jo utra so doob gaya, jo dooba so paar.

Oh Khusraw, the river of love
Runs in strange directions.
One who jumps into it drowns,
And one who drowns, gets across.