In class this week, we discussed Rumi and Hafez’s poems and their focus on human love vs. Divine love.  They talk about human love as leading toward Divine love.  For example, Hafez writes:

I Want Both Of Us

I want both of us

To start talking about this great love

As if you, I, and the Sun were all married

And living in a tiny room,

Helping each other to cook,

Do the wash,

Weave and sew,

Care for our beautiful

Animals.

We all leave each morning

To labor on the earth’s field.

No one does not lift a great pack.

I want both of us to start singing like two

Travelling minstrels

About this extraordinary existence

We share,

As if

You, I, and God were all married

And living in

A tiny

Room.

This drawing is a simple moleskin notebook sketch with only pen and paper.  It shows a man and a woman formed together in the shape of a heart at the bottom of the stairs beginning a journey of love toward the Divine together.  You can either look at the picture as a male face on the left and a female face on the right or a full male body on the left and a full female body on the right.  This takes away the focus from the details of the drawing and helps the viewer focus on the merged figure formed by the two, which displays a deep human love.  The link leading up the steps to the Divine is made up of hearts displaying the love that links the Divine to us when we are in love, or love someone else, and how that connects or leads us to love like the Divine or to be fully immersed in the Divine.  At the top of the stairs, you can see only a piece of the heart of the Divine (representing the Divine love) because it could never fit onto a page.  The stairs are shaded at the bottom representing the impurities that must be purged and the difficulties/challenges that human love will face in getting closer to the Divine and becoming more Divine-like.