Thank you!

— When I ask my computer to write my favorite verse to you in the voice of Rumi, I cry — because it is beautiful. When I ask it to translate the verse back into Farsi, it suggests more restraint: shorter, quieter, more mystical— like you. When I ask it to choose a single line I could learn to write by hand, it gives me this: من تمام نشده‌ام And then it offers more— still natural, still generous revisions. When I ask it to show me the words handwritten, it gives me: تمام نشده‌ام When I ask what that means, it tells me, “I am my final word.” But when I ask it to translate my own script back— and I admit, I tried— it says instead: warm bread, walnuts, and cheese. And I laugh for the first time today, because it isn’t profound— and yet I think that if I could be for you what warm bread, walnuts, and cheese are, then maybe I could love you for the first time.