red-white tulips, istanbul tulip festival 2009

red-white tulips, istanbul tulip festival 2009, kırmızı-beyaz laleler, istanbul lale festivali 2009, pentax k10d

pink tulips, I ain’t lookin’ to compete with you

 

pink tulips, istanbul tulip festival 2009, istanbul lale festivali 2009, pentax k10d

All I Really Want To Do

I ain’t lookin’ to compete with you,
Beat or cheat or mistreat you,
Simplify you, classify you,
Deny, defy or crucify you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

No, and I ain’t lookin’ to fight with you,
Frighten you or uptighten you,
Drag you down or drain you down,
Chain you down or bring you down.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I ain’t lookin’ to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up,
Analyze you, categorize you,
Finalize you or advertise you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don’t want to straight-face you,
Race or chase you, track or trace you,
Or disgrace you or displace you,
Or define you or confine you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don’t want to meet your kin,
Make you spin or do you in,
Or select you or dissect you,
Or inspect you or reject you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don’t want to fake you out,
Take or shake or forsake you out,
I ain’t lookin’ for you to feel like me,
See like me or be like me.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

Bob Dylan

tulips

 

İstanbul tulip festival 2009, Hidiv Kasri, Beykoz, İstanbul Lale Festivali 2009, Pentax K10d

yellow tulips

 

yellow tulips, sarı laleler, İstanbul tulip festival, İstanbul lale festivali 2009, Pentax K10d

knowing a hundred tongues

single tulip, yalnız lale, istanbul, pentax k10d

 

 

One whose heart and tongue are not one

but knowing a hundred tongues,

has no tongues

Mevlana

 

Pentax K10D, at Istanbul

tulips : Time is a poignant sword.

Pentax K10D, at Istanbul

 

Time is a poignant sword.

The mytic is the son of time.

He does not say tomorrow,

but evaluate the moment.

 

Mevlana

yellow tulips (sarı laleler)

 

yellow tulips, Istanbul tulip festival 2009, Istanbul lale festivali'nden sarı laleler, Pentax K10d

tulips

 

 

red tulips, Istanbul tulip festival 2009, Istanbul lale festivali'nden kırmızı laleler, Istanbul, pentax k10d

yellow-red tulips, Istanbul tulip festival 2009

 

yellow-red tulips, Istanbul tulip festival 2009, Istanbul lale festivali'nden sarı-kırmızı laleler, Pentax K10d

You and I unselfed, will be together

red tulips, istanbul tulip festival 2009, istanbul lale festivali, kırmızı laleler, istanbul emirgan, pentax k10d

A moment of happiness

 
A moment of happiness
you and I sitting on the verandah,
apparently two, but one in soul, you and I.

We feel the flowing water of life here,
you and I, with the garden’s beauty
and the birds singing.

The stars will be watching us,
and we will show them
what it is to be a thin crescent moon.

You and I unselfed, will be together,
indifferent to idle speculation, you and I.

The parrots of heaven will be cracking sugar
as we laugh together, you and I.

In one form upon this earth,
and in another form in a timeless sweet land.

From : Kulliyat-e Shams, 2114

Mevlana

Liberate my soul. Fill me with your love

tulips, istanbul tulip festival 2009, istanbul lale festivali 2009, istanbul, pentax k10d

Oh Beloved

Oh Beloved,
take me.
Liberate my soul.
Fill me with your love and
release me from the two worlds.
If I set my heart on anything but you
let fire burn me from inside.

Oh Beloved,
take away what I want.
Take away what I do.
Take away what I need.
Take away everything
that takes me from you.

Mevlana

hold of the Water of Life

colorful tulips, istanbul tulip festival 2009, istanbul, pentax k10d

Love is the Water of Life

Everything other than love for the most beautiful God
though it be sugar-eating.

What is agony of the spirit?

To advance toward death without seizing

hold of the Water of Life.

From
Masnawi I 3686-87

Now it is time for silence.

pink tulips, istanbul tulip festival 2009, istanbul lale festivali 2009, pentax k10d

Who is at my door?

He said, “Who is at my door?”
I said, “Your humble servant.”
He said, “What business do you have?”
I said, “To greet you, 0 Lord.”

He said, “How long will you journey on?”
I said, “Until you stop me.”
He said, “How long will you boil in the fire?”
I said, “Until I am pure.

“This is my oath of love.
For the sake of love
I gave up wealth and position.”

He said, “You have pleaded your case
but you have no witness.”
I said, “My tears are my witness;
the pallor of my face is my proof.’

He said, “Your witness has no credibility;
your eyes are too wet to see.”
I said, “By the splendor of your justice
my eyes are clear and faultless.”

He said, “What do you seek?”
I said, “To have you as my constant friend.”
He said, “What do you want from me?”
I said, “Your abundant grace.”

He said, “Who was your companion on the ‘ourney?
I said, “The thought of you, 0 King.”
He said, “What called you here?”
I said, “The fragrance of your wine.”

He said, “What brings you the most fulfillment?”
I said, “The company of the Emperor.”
He said, “What do you find there?”
I said, “A hundred miracles.”

He said, “Why is the palace deserted?”
I said, “They all fear the thief.”
He said, “Who is the thief?”
I said, “The one who keeps me from -you.

He said, “Where is there safety?”
I said, “In service and renunciation.”
He said, “What is there to renounce?”
I said, “The hope of salvation.”

He said, “Where is there calamity?”
I said, “In the presence of your love.”
He said, “How do you benefit from this life?”
I said, “By keeping true to myself

Now it is time for silence.
If I told you about His true essence
You would fly from your self and be gone,
and neither door nor roof could hold you back!

From:  Rumi – In the Arms of the Beloved, Jonathan Star,  Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York 1997

tulips

istanbul tulip festival 2009, istanbul, pentax k10d

There is a certain Love that is formed out of the elixir of the East.

istanbul tulip festival 2009, istanbul lale festivali 2009, istanbul, pentax k10d

There is a certain Love

There is a certain Love
that is formed out of the
elixir of the East.
There is a certain cloud,
impregnated with a
thousand lightnings.
There is my body,
in it an ocean formed of his glory,
all the creation,
all the universes,
all the galaxies,
are lost in it.

Mevlana

yellow tulips, Istanbul tulip festival 2009

yellow tulips, Istanbul Tulip Festival 2009, sarı laleler, istanbul lale festivali 2009, istanbul, pentax k10d

Istanbul Tulip Festival 2009

lilac tulips, istanbul tulip festival 2009, istanbul, pentax k10d

I am in love with yellow tulips

yellow-red tulips, istanbul tulip festival 2009, istanbul lale festival 2009, sarı ve kırmızı laleler, istanbul emirgan, pentax k10d

I am in Love

I am in Love!
I am in Love with him.
All this advise–
what’s the use?
I have drunk poison.
All this sugar
what’s the use?
You say hurry,
tie up his feet.
But its my heart that’s gone crazy,
all this rope
around my feet–
what’s the use?

Mevlana

All I really want to do … Is, baby, be friends with you.

yellow-red tulips, istanbul tuli festival, istanbul, İstanbul lale festivali 2009, pentax k10d

All I Really Want To Do

I ain’t lookin’ to compete with you,
Beat or cheat or mistreat you,
Simplify you, classify you,
Deny, defy or crucify you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

No, and I ain’t lookin’ to fight with you,
Frighten you or uptighten you,
Drag you down or drain you down,
Chain you down or bring you down.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I ain’t lookin’ to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up,
Analyze you, categorize you,
Finalize you or advertise you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don’t want to straight-face you,
Race or chase you, track or trace you,
Or disgrace you or displace you,
Or define you or confine you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don’t want to meet your kin,
Make you spin or do you in,
Or select you or dissect you,
Or inspect you or reject you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don’t want to fake you out,
Take or shake or forsake you out,
I ain’t lookin’ for you to feel like me,
See like me or be like me.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

Bob Dylan

Willingly I’d leave to thee, Thousand such nights, were one given

Istanbul tulip festival 2009, İstanbul lale festivali 2009, İstanbul , Pentax K10d

The beautiful night

Now I leave this cottage lowly,

Where my love hath made her home,
And with silent footstep slowly

Through the darksome forest roam,
Luna breaks through oaks and bushes,

Zephyr hastes her steps to meet,
And the waving birch-tree blushes,

Scattering round her incense sweet.

Grateful are the cooling breezes

Of this beauteous summer night,
Here is felt the charm that pleases,

And that gives the soul delight.
Boundless is my joy; yet, Heaven,

Willingly I’d leave to thee
Thousand such nights, were one given

By my maiden loved to me!

Goethe

Pentax K10D, at Istanbul