Andrei Ioan Cirnu

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“THE DEATH OF SALADIN

You left ground and sky weeping, mind
and soul full of grief. No one can

take your place in existence or in
absence. Both mourn, the angels, the

prophets, and this sadness I feel has
taken from me the taste of language,

so that I can't say the flavor of my
being apart. The roof of the kingdom

within has collapsed! When I say the
word YOU, I mean a hundred universes.

Pouring grief water, or secret dripping in the heart, eyes in the head or eyes

of the soul, I saw yesterday that all these flow out to find you when you're

not here. That bright fire bird Saladin
went like an arrow, and now the bow

trembles and sobs. If you know how to
weep for human beings, weep for Saladin.”
― Rumi, The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems