I Have Come Into the World To See This

An excerpt from the poem “I Have Come Into This World To See This” by Hafiz as it is recorded in the book Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky.

I have come into the world to experience this:

men so true to love
they would rather die before speaking
an unkind word,

men so true their lives are His covenant -
the promise of
hope.

I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men's hands
even at the height of
their arc of
rage

because we have finally realized
there is just one flesh

we can wound.