Offering Love Sonnet by Mirabai
May 2014
Do not mention the name of love, O my simple-minded companion, Strange is the path, When you offer your love.
Your body is crushed at the first step. If you want to offer love, Be prepared to cut off your head, And sit on it.
Be like the moth, Which circles the lamp and offers its body.
Be like the deer, which, on hearing the horn, Offers its head to the hunter.
Be like the partridge, Which swallows burning coals, In love of the moon.
Be like the fish, Which yields up its life, When separated from the sea.
Be like the bee, Entrapped in the closing petals of the lotus.
Mira’s lord is the courtly Giridhara.
She says: Offer your mind, To those lotus feet.