Bittersweet

Lyrics

In my hallucination
I saw my Beloved's flower garden
In my vertigo
In my dizziness
In my drunken haze
Whirling and dancing like a spinning wheel

I saw myself as the source of existence
I was there in the beginning
And I was the Spirit of Love
Now I am sober
There is only the hangover
And the memory of love
And only the sorrow
I yearn for happiness
I ask for help
I want mercy

And my Love says
"Look at me and hear me
Because I am here just with that"

I am your moon and your moonlight too
I am your flower garden and your water too
I have come all this way eager for you
Without shoes or shawl

I want you to laugh
To kill all your worries
To love you
To nourish you

Oh the sweet bitterness
I will soothe you and heal you
I will bring you roses
I too have been covered with thorns

Credits

Written by Rumi
Edited by Deepak Chopra
Read by Madonna

Album

A Gift Of Love - Music inspired by the Love Poems of Rumi

Song

In the 13th century Persian poet Rumi (named after the city where he lived) composed works of mysticism and desire that inspired countless people in his own time and throughout the centuries. His poems expressed the deepest longings of the human heart for its beloved, for that transcendent intimacy which is the source of the divine.

Contemporary spiritualist Deepak Chopra got inspired by Rumi's Love Poems and asked several celebrities to read them to music. Among them are Demi Moore, Goldie Hawn, Martin Sheen, Debra Winger and of course Madonna. Madonna choose the poem Bittersweet. It appeared on the 1998 album A Gift Of Love - Music inspired by the Love Poems of Rumi.

Devoted Madonnafan Barney Medunic also used an acapella version of the track for his great (unofficial) remix Whirling and Dancing, which was very popular on file sharing program Napster.