Turned by the waves of Love

~

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Know that the wheeling heavens are turned by waves of Love:
were it not for Love, the world would be frozen, stiff.
How would an inorganic thing transform into a plant?
How would living creatures sacrifice themselves
to become endowed with spirit?
How would the spirit sacrifice itself for the sake of that Breath
by which Mary was made pregnant?
Each one of them would be unyielding and immovable as ice:
how could they be flying and searching like locusts?
Every one is in love with that Perfection
and hastening upward like a sapling.
Their haste implicitly is saying, "Glory to God!"
They are purifying the body for the sake of the spirit.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dawr-e gardun-hâ ze mawj-e `Eshq dân
gar na-budi `Eshq be-fesordi jahân
Kay jamâdi mahv gashti dar nabât
kay fedâ-ye ruh gashti nâmiyât
Ruh kay gashti fedâ-ye ân Dami
kaz nasimesh hâmeleh shod Maryami
Har yeki bar jâ toranjidi cho yakh
kay bodi parrân o juyân chon malakh
Zarreh zarreh `âsheqân-e ân Kamâl
mi shetâbad dar `olu hamchon nehâl
Sabbaha Allâh hast eshtâbeshân
tanqiyeh-ye tan mi konad az bahr-e jân

-- Mathnawi V: 3854-3859
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyل Monastra)

The media:
http://tinyurl.com/34oo2n

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

~

Turned by the waves of Love