Kabir Poem Water and Wave

I have been thinking of the difference

between water

and the waves on it. Rising,

water’s still water, falling back,

it is water, will you give me a hint

how to tell them apart?

 

Because someone has made up the word

“wave”, do I have to distinguish it

from water?

 

There is a Secret One inside us;

the planets in all the galaxies

pass through his hands like beads.

 

That is a string of beads one should look at with

    luminous eyes.

 

translated by Robert Bly The Kabir Book Beacon Press page 29 poem 22.