Love for Certain Work

Here is a poem written by 13th century Persian Poet Rumi and was translated by Coleman Barks.

I wish to share this poem with you all because my English professor Alisha Barry gave us this poem to compare it to the rest of our college careers. Everybody has a unique talent and love for what they do. So finding that work that compels you to move forward is like finding love. Because love is something everybody needs in order to truly live.

Love for Certain Work

Rumi

Traveling is as refreshing for some

as staying at home is for others.

Solitude in a mountain place

fills with companionship for this one,

and weariness for that one.

This person loves being in charge

of the workings of a community.

This other one lives the ways

heated iron can be shaped with a hammer.

Each has been given a strong desire

for certain work, a love for those motions,

and all motion is love.

The way sticks and pieces of dead grass and leaves

shift about in the wind

and with the directions of rain and puddle-water

on the ground, those motions

are all following the love

they have been given.