Tuesday, July 31, 2007

[Sunlight] "It is less than an atom"

~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


When He Himself is the light of your eye,
a hundred worlds like ours appear.
If this one looks bottomless and vast,
remember: to Omnipotence it is less than an atom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sad cho `âlam dar nazar paydâ konad
chon keh chashmet-râ be-Khvod binâ konad
Gar jahân pishast bozorg o bi bonist
pish-e Qodrat zarreh mi dân nist
In jahân khvod habs-e jân-hâ-ye shomâst
hin ravid ân su keh sahrâ-ye shomâst
In jahân majdud o ân khvod bi haddast
naqsh o surat pish-e ân ma`nâ saddast.

-- Mathnawi I: 523-6
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~

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Monday, July 30, 2007

[Sunlight] "God willing"

~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some people work and become wealthy.
Others do the same and remain poor.

Marriage fill one with energy.
Another it drains.

Don't trust ways. They change.
A means flails about like a donkey's tail.

Always add the gratitude clause
to any sentence, if God wills,
then go.

You may be leading a donkey, no,
a goat, no, who can tell?

We sit in a dark pit and think we're home.
We pass around delicacies.
Poisoned bait.

You think this is preachy doubletalk?

Those who do not breathe the God willing phrase
live in a collective blindness.

Rubbing their eyes, they ask the dark,
"Who's there?"

-- Mathnawi VI: 3685-3698
Version by Coleman Barks
"We Are Three,"
Maypop, 1987

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~


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Friday, July 27, 2007

[Sunlight] "In silence"

~


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is a channel between voice and presence,
a way where information flows.

In disciplined silence the channel opens.
With wandering talk, it closes.

-- Version by Coleman Barks
"Unseen Rain"
Threshold Books, 1986

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There is a thread from the heart to the lips
where the secret of life is woven.
Words tear the thread
but in silence
the secrets
speak.

-- Translation by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
"Rumi: Hidden Music"
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~

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Thursday, July 26, 2007

[Sunlight] The water of life

~


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Though your life has almost passed, this present moment is its root:
if it lacks moisture, water it with repentance.
Give the Living Water to the root of your life,
so that the tree of your life may flourish.
By this Water past mistakes are redeemed.
By this Water last year's poison is made sweet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

`Omr agar be-gozasht bikhesh in damast
âb-e tawbeh-sh deh agar u bi namast
Bikh-e `omret-râ be-deh b-e Hayât
tâ derakht-e `omr gardad bâ nabât
Jomleh-ye mâzi-hâ azin niku shavand
zahr-e pârineh azin gardad cho qand

-- Mathnawi V: 2222-2224
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~

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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

[Sunlight] "By love, the bitter becomes sweet"

~


Here, Sunlight offers verses from Molana's epic, "The
Mathnawi", Book II, lines 1529-30, in two translations -- one from
Schimmel, and one from Helminski, with a Persian transliteration:


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Through love all that is bitter will be
sweet.
Through Love all that is copper will be
gold.
Through Love all dregs will turn to purest
wine.
Through Love all pain will turn to
medicine.
Through Love the dead will all become
alive.
Through Love the king will turn into a
slave!

-- Translation by Annemarie Schimmel
"Look! This is Love - Poems of Rumi"
Shambhala, 1991

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By love, the bitter becomes sweet;
by love, copper becomes gold;
by love, dregs become clear;
by love, pains become healing;
by love the dead become living;
by love, the king becomes a slave.
From knowledge, love grows.
Has stupidity ever placed anyone on such a throne?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Az mohabbat talkh-hâ shirin shavad
az mohabbat mes-hâ zarrin shavad
Az mohabbat dord-hâ sâfi shavad
az mohabbat dard-hâ shâfi shavad
Az mohabbat mordeh zendeh mi konand
az mohabbat shâh bandeh mi konand
in mohabbat ham natijeh-ye dânesh ast
ki gazâfeh bar chonin takhti neshast

-- Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~

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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

[Sunlight] "Until springtime brings the touch of God"

~


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The soil is faithful to its trust:
whatever you have sown in it, you reap the same.
But until springtime brings the touch of God,
the soil does not reveal its secrets.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Khâk amin o harch dar vay kâshti
bi khiyânat jens-e ân bardâshti
Tâ neshân-e Haqq niyârad nawbahâr
khâk serr-hâ-râ na-kardeh âshkâr

-- Mathnawi I: 509;511
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


~


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Monday, July 23, 2007

[Sunlight] "I Met One Traveling" -- Ghazal 3107

~


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I Met One Traveling"


In the evening between sleep and awakening,
I met one traveling. He was the light of

consciousness. His body was soul, his pure
wisdom apparent in his beautiful face. He

praises me for a while, then scolds, "You
sit on the seven-sky throne, in prison.

The sign of Gemini has set a table for you,
yet you stick your head down a drainhole

again. Essence is not nourished with food
and sleep. Do no one any harm in this

timefield of short crops, where what you
sow comes back up very quickly! You try to

accomplish things, to win, to reach goals.
This is not the true situation. Put the

whole world in ambition's stomach, it'll
never be enough. Assume you get everything

you want. Assume you have it now. What's
the point? The next moment, you die.

Friend, the youth you've lived is ending.
You sleep a drunken dreamless sleep with no

sense what morning you could wake inside."

-- Ghazal (Ode) 3107
Version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin
"The Glance"
Viking-Penguin, 1999

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


~

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Friday, July 20, 2007

[Sunlight] "To Know the Moon and the Sea"

~


Here, Sunlight offers Ghazal N-XIX (numbered according
to Nicholson's numbering system, rather than the Furuzanfur
system), in a version by Kabir Helminski:


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"To Know the Moon and the Sea"

At the break of dawn a single moon appeared,
descended from the sky, and gazed at me.

Like a falcon swooping in for the catch,
it snatched me up and soared across the sky.
When I looked at myself, I saw myself no more,
because by grace my body had become fine.

I made a journey of the soul accompanied by the moon,
until the secret of time was totally revealed.
Heaven's nine spheres were in that moon.
The vessel of my being had vanished in that sea.

Waves rose on the ocean. Intelligence ascended
and sounded its call. So it happened; so it was.
The sea began to foam and every bit of froth
took shape and was bodied forth.

Then each spindrift body kissed by that sea
immediately melted into spirit.
Without the power of a Shams, the Truth of Tabriz,
one could neither behold the moon nor become the sea.

-- Ghazal (Ode) N-XIX
Version by Kabir Helminski
"Love is a Stranger"
Threshold Books, 1993

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


~

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Thursday, July 19, 2007

[Sunlight] "A furnace to extract the silver"

~


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace
to extract the silver from the dross.
This testing purifies the gold
by boiling the scum away.

~~~~~~~~~

Ba-har ânast in riyâzat vin jafâ
tâ bar ârad kawreh az noqreh jofâ
ba-har ânast emtehân nik o bad
tâ be-jushad bar sar ârad zar zabad

-- Mathnawi I: 232-233
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra
Persian media courtesy of Panevis

The media:

http://tinyurl.com/2fdns9

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


~


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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

[Sunlight] Disintangle yourself -- Ghazal 3291

~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

if you can disentangle
yourself from your selfish self
all heavenly spirits
will stand ready to serve you

if you can finally hunt down
your own beastly self
you have the right
to claim Solomon's kingdom

you are that blessed soul who
belongs to the garden of paradise
is it fair to let yourself
fall apart in a shattered house

you are the bird of happiness
in the magic of existence
what a pity when you let
yourself be chained and caged

but if you can break free
from this dark prison named body
soon you will see
you are the sage and the fountain of life

-- Ghazal (Ode) 3291
Translation by Nader Khalili
"Rumi, Fountain of Fire"
Burning Gate Press, Los Angeles, 1994.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~

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Monday, July 16, 2007

[Sunlight] "Gradualness is characteristic of that King"

~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wasn't God able to create heaven in one moment by the word "Be"?
Without a doubt He was.
Why, then, O you who seek to be taught,
did He extend the time to six days—
every day as long as a thousand years?
Why is the creation of a child completed in nine months?
Because gradualness is characteristic of the action of that King.

~~~~~~~~~

Haqq nah qâder bud bar khalq-e falak
dar yeki lahzeh be- "Kun"*? Bi hich shakk
Pas cherâ shesh ruz ân-râ dar keshid
koll yawm alf `âm ay mostanid
Khalqat-e tefl az cheh andar noh mah ast
zânkeh tadrij az she`âr-e ân Shah ast

-- Mathnawi VI: 1213-1215
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


~


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[Sunlight] "The Day's Great Wooden Bowl" -- Ghazal 2952

~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Day's Great Wooden Bowl


Still dizzy from last night's
wine? Wait a while. Don't reach

yet for this we serve. You can't
really be on the ocean with scenes

of familiar creeks and your loved
home-river in your eyes. Wait,

if you're caught in memory. As
those with business ideas were

driven from the temple courtyard,
so bitter, self-important people

need to be excluded from the mix
being stirred in this day's great

wooden bowl. In the room with
the Chinese princess, popular

songs fade. Don't boil the hard
unripened grapes, and don't sell

vinegar! This moment is the perfect
grape you crush to make your life-

wine interesting. You might, in
such a moment, meet someone as

I met Shams. God knows what
orchard you'll be walking then!

-- Ghazal (Ode) 2952
Version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin
"The Glance"
Viking-Penguin, 1999

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Friday, July 13, 2007

"Let go of all distractions"

~


Today, Sunlight offers translations of Ghazal (Ode) 563, from
Rumi's "Divan-e Shams" ("The Collection of Shams"), by Kolin and
Mafi, and by Professor Arberry:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My heart, sit only with those
who know and understand you.
Sit only under a tree
that is full of blossoms.
In the bazaar of herbs and potions
don't wander aimlessly
find the shop with a potion that is sweet
If you don't have a measure
people will rob you in no time.
You will take counterfeit coins
thinking they are real.
Don't fill your bowl with food from
every boiling pot you see.
Not every joke is humorous, so don't search
for meaning where there isn't one.
Not every eye can see,
not every sea is full of pearls.
My heart, sing the song of longing
like a nightingale.
The sound of your voice casts a spell
on every stone, on every thorn.
First, lay down your head
then one by one
let go of all distractions.
Embrace the light and let it guide you
beyond the winds of desire.
There you will find a spring, and nourished by it see waters;
like a tree you will bear fruit forever.

--Translation by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
"Rumi: Hidden Music"
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My heart, be seated near that person who has experience of
the heart, go under that tree which bears fresh blossoms.
Go not in every direction as do idlers in this druggists'
market; sit in the shop of someone who has sugar in his shop.
If you have no balance, then every one waylays you; one
man adorns a counterfeit coin, and you imagine that he has
gold;
Cheatingly he sets you by the door, saying, "I am coming"
- do not sit expectant at the door, for that house has two doors.
Do not bring your cup to every pot that seethes, and do not
sit there, for every seething pot has within in something else.
Not every reed holds sugar; not every under has an over;
not every eye has sight; not every sea holds pearls.
Lament, singing nightingale, because the drunkard's lament
has some effect, some effect even on rocks and stones.
Put aside your head if you have no room, for if the thread is
not contained in the eye of the needle that is because it has a head.
This wakeful heart is a lantern; hold it under your skirt; pass
away from this wind and air, for the air puts it into commotion.
When you have passed away from the wind you have become a
dweller in a fountain, you have become companion to a confederate
who pours cooling water on the heart.
When you have water on your heart, you are like a green
tree which constantly yields new fruit, and journeys within the Heart.

-- Translation by A.J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 1"
The University of Chicago Press 1968/1991

The media:

http://tinyurl.com/29rjp8

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


~


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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

"Those who have already died"

~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lovers, who die knowingly, die like sugar
before their Beloved.
On the day of Alast they drank the Water of
Life -- so they cannot die like others.
Since they have been resurrected in Love, they
do not die like these people in the crowd.
Through God's Gentleness they have passed
beyond the angels--far be it from them to die like humans!
Do you suppose that lions die like dogs, far
from His Presence?
When lovers die in their journey, the spirit's
King runs out to meet them.
When they die at the feet of that Moon, they all
light up like the sun.
The lovers who are each others' spirit, die in
their mutual love.
The water of Love soothes their aching livers,
they all come and die in that heartache.
Each is an unparalleled orphan pearl -- they do
not die next to mothers and fathers.
Lovers fly to the spheres, deniers die in the
depths of the Blaze.
Lovers open the eye that sees the Unseen, the
rest all die blind and deaf.
In fear the lovers never used to sleep at night--
now they all die without dread or danger.
Those who worshiped fodder here were all
cows -- they die like asses.
Those who sought that vision today die happy
and laughing in vision's midst.
The king places them next to His Gentleness--
they do not die in the lowliness and insignificance you see.
Those who seek to acquire the virtue of
Muhammad die like Abu Bakr and Umar.*
Far from them is death and annihilation! But I
have sung this ghazal supposing they were to die.

-- Ghazal (Ode) 972
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

* I.e. Abu Bakr and Umar, along with Uthman and Ali, were the closest
companions of the Prophet and the first four caliphs of Islam.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


~


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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

"Gradualness is characteristic of that King"

~


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wasn't God able to create heaven in one moment by the word "Be"?
Without a doubt He was.
Why, then, O you who seek to be taught,
did He extend the time to six days—
every day as long as a thousand years?
Why is the creation of a child completed in nine months?
Because gradualness is characteristic of the action of that King.

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Haqq nah qâder bud bar khalq-e falak
dar yeki lahzeh be- "Kun"*? Bi hich shakk
Pas cherâ shesh ruz ân-râ dar keshid
koll yawm alf `âm ay mostanid
Khalqat-e tefl az cheh andar noh mah ast
zânkeh tadrij az she`âr-e ân Shah ast

-- Mathnawi VI: 1213-1215
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

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Monday, July 09, 2007

Every mote

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Today, Sunlight offers Ghazal (Ode) 1195, from Molana
Rumi's "Diwan-e Shams" ("The Collection of Shams"), in a version by
Coleman Barks, and in the translation by A.J. Arberry, from which
Barks developed his version:


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"Music Master"

You that love lovers,
this is your home. Welcome!

In the midst of making form, love
made this form that melts form,
with love for the door,
soul the vestibule.

Watch the dust grains moving
in the light near the window.
Their dance is our dance.

We rarely hear the inward music,
but we're all dancing to it nevertheless,

directed by the one who teaches us,
the pure joy of the sun,
our music master.

-- Version by Coleman Barks
"The Essential Rumi"
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

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The love of that cherisher of lovers has come to his own
house; Love has in form-conceiving a form melting all forms.
You have come to your own house; welcome, enter! Your coming is
with joy; enter by the door of the heart, run to the vestibule of the
soul!
Every mote of my being is in love with your sun; take heed, for
motes have long transaction with the sun.
See how before the window the motes gracefully suspended
beat; whoever has the sun for a qibla prays after this fashion.
In the concert of the sun these motes are like Sufis; no on
knows to what recitation, to what rhythm, to what harmony.
In every heart there is a different note and rhythm, all stamp-
ing feet outwardly, and the minstrels hidden like a secret.
Loftier than all is our inward concert, our particles dancing
therein with a hundred kinds of glory and pride.
Shams-I Tabrizi, you are the sultan of the sultans of the soul;
no Mahmud like you ever came into being, nor like me any Ayaz.

*The love of Sultan Mahmud and Ayaz became proverbial; see Math.
V:2858 foll.

-- Translation by A.J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 1"
The University of Chicago Press 1968/1991

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Friday, July 06, 2007

Like children

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Here, Sunlight offers a selection from the Mathnawi, in a
version by Coleman Barks, accompanied by the Nicholson translation
from which Barks derived his interpretive version:


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Recognize that your imagination and your thinking
and your sense perception are reed canes
that children cut and pretend are horsies.

The Knowing of mystic Lovers is different.
The empirical, sensory, sciences
are like a donkey loaded with books,
or like the makeup woman's makeup.
It washes
off.

But if you lift the baggage rightly, it will give you joy.
Don't carry your knowledge-load for some selfish reason.
Deny your desires and willfulness,
and a real mount may appear under you.

Don't be satisfied with the name of HU,
with just words about it.

Experience that breathing.
From books and words come fantasy,
and sometimes, from fantasy
comes union.

-- Mathnawi I: 3445-3454
Version by Coleman Barks
"The Essential Rumi"
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

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Explaining that one must keep one's own (spiritual) state and
(mystical) intoxication hidden from the ignorant.

Hearken to the words of the Sage (Hakim) who lived in
seclusion(1), "Lay thy head in the same place where thou hast
drunk the wine."(2)
When the drunken man(3) has gone astray from a tavern, he
becomes the children's laughing-stock and playing.
Whatever way he goes(4), he is falling in the mud, (now) on
this side and (now) on that side, and every fool is laughing at
him.
He (goes on) like this, while the children at his heels are
without knowledge of his intoxication and the taste of this wine.
All mankind are children except him that is intoxicated with
God; none is grown-up except him that is feed from sensual
desire.
He (God) said, "This world is a play and pastime, and ye are
children"(5) ; and God speaks truth.
If you have not gone forth from (taken leave of) play, you are
a child: without purity of spirit how will you be fully intelligent
(like an adult)?
Know, O youth, that the lust in which men are indulging
here (in this world) is like the sexual intercourse of children.
What is the child's sexual intercourse? An idle play, compared
with the sexual intercourse of a Rustam and a brave champion
of Islam.
The wars of mankind are like children's fights--all
meaningless, pitchless, and contemptible.
All their fights are (fought) with wooden swords, all their
purposes are (centered) in furtility;
They all are riding on a reed-cane (hobby-horses), saying,
"This is our Buraq (6) or mule that goes like Duldul(7)."
They are (really) carrying (their hobby-horses), but in their
folly they have raised themselves on high: they have fancied
themselves to be riders carried along the road.
Wait till the day when those who are borne aloft by God shall
pass, galloping, beyond the nine tiers (of Heaven)!
"The spirit and the angles shall ascend to Him"(8) : at the
ascension of the spirit Heaven shall tremble.
Like children, ye all are riding on your skirts: ya have taken
hold of the corner of your skirts (to serve) as a horse.
From God came (the text), "Verily, opinion doth not enable
(you) to dispense (with the Truth)"(9) : when did the steed of
opinion run (mount) to the Heavens?
While preferring (in case of doubt) the stronger of the two
(alternative) opinions, do not doubt whether you see the sun
when it is shining!
At that time (when the spirit returns to God) behold your
steeds! Ye have made a steed of your own foot.
Come, recognize that your imagination and reflection and
sense-perception and apprehension are like the reed-cane on which
children ride.
The sciences of the mystics(10) bear them (aloft): the
sciences of sensual men(11) are burdens to them.
When knowledge strikes on the heart (is acquired through
mystical experience), it becomes a helper (Yari) ; when knowledge
strikes on the body (is acquired through the senses), it becomes a
burden (bari).
God hath said, "(Like an ass) laden with his books"(12) :
burdensome is the knowledge that is not from Himself.
The knowledge that is not immediately from Himself does not
endure, (it is) like the tirewoman's paint.
But when you carry this burden well, the burden will be
removed and you will be given (spiritual) joy.
Beware! Do not carry this burden of knowledge for the sake of
selfish desire (but mortify yourself), so that you may ride on the
smooth-paced steed of knowledge,
So that you may mount the smooth-paced steed of knowledge,
(and that) afterwards the burden may fall from your shoulder.
How wit thou be freed from selfish desires without the cup of
Hu (Him), O thou who hast become content with no more of Hu than
the name of Hu?(13)
From attribute and name what comes to birth? Phantasy; and
that phantasy shows the way to union with Him.

-- Mathnawi I: 3426 - 54
Translation and Commentary by Reynold A. Nicholson
"The Mathnawi of Jalalu'ddin Rumi"
Published and Distributed by
The Trustees of The "E.J.W. Gibb Memorial"

(1) Literally, "the sage of a purdeh." The Persian poet Sana'i is
meant. Hakim Sana'i was born in 437/1045-6. He is a celebrated writer
of religious poetry for which there appeared to exist a lively
interest. The Hadiqat al-haqiqat is the first specimen of a mystical
Mathnawi inPersian literature and has had a considerable impact on
later writers in the same genre, notably on Jalaluddin Rumi, whose
Mathnawi yi-Ma'nawi was composed after the example given by Sana'i.
(Sunlight footnotes)
(2) Here, in this line Rumi quotes from Sana'i's Hadiqat
al-haqiqat. (Professor Este'lami's commentary--Persian scholar)
(3) Drunken men are the ones who are drunken from Divine
wine, and often misunderstood by the ordinary people.(Este'lami's
commentary)
(4) Literally, "on every road."
(5) The animal ridden by the Prophet when he ascended to
Heaven.
(6) A mule belonging to the Prophet.
(7) Qur'an,XXIX,64
(8) Qur'an, LXX,4
(9) Qur'an, X,36
(10) Literally, "the men of heart."
(11) Literally, "the men of body."
(12) Qur'an, LXII,5
(13) Hu is an Arabic name for God, also it is a famous Zikr
(meditation mantra) among the Mevelvieh Sufi Order. (Gulpinarly's
commentary -- Turkish scholar).

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Thursday, July 05, 2007

"What is arrogance?"

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What is arrogance?
It is being oblivious and insensible to what is essential,
as the ice is unaware of the sun.
When ice becomes conscious of the sun, it doesn't last long:
it warms and melts and flows away.

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In takabbor chist ghaflat az lobâb
monjamed chon ghaflat-e yakh ze âftâb
Chon khabar shod ze âftâbesh yakh na-mând
narm gasht o garm gasht o tiz rând


-- Mathnawi V:1941-1942
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

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Wednesday, July 04, 2007

"Shams has come!"

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Shams has come!
My Sun and Moon, my sight and hearing
that Beauty suddenly appeared by my side.
The one who was always in my thoughts
for whom I've searched so long
has come to me with open arms
laying flowers on my path.
My deepest wish has been granted.
What can I fear when my shield
my water of life has come?
Today is a day of Glory!
Today I am like Solomon
with the ring of abundance on my finger
and the divine crown on my head.
I can fly for he has given me wings
I can roar like a lion, I can rise like dawn.
No more verses
for I am taken to a place from where
this world seems so small.

-- Ghazal (Ode) 633
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Hidden Music
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001


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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

"The lover's ailment"

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The lover's ailment is not like any other;
Love is the astrolabe* of God's mysteries.
Whether Love is from heaven or earth,
it points to God.

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`Ellat-e `âsheq ze `ellat-hâ jodâst
`eshq astorlâb-i asrâr-e Khodâst
`Âsheqi gar zin sar va gar zân sarast
`âqebat-i mâ-râ bedân serr rahbarast

-- Mathnawi I: 110-111
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

* Astrolabe: an astronomical instrument for taking the altitude of
the sun or stars, and for the solution of other problems in astronomy
and navigation. Used by Greek astronomers from about 200 B.C., and
by Arab astronomers from the Middle Ages, until superseded by the
sextant.

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Monday, July 02, 2007

"The Elusive Ones"

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The Elusive Ones


They're lovers again: Sugar dissolving in milk.
Day and night, no difference. The sun is the moon:
an amalgam. Their gold and silver melt together.
This is the season when the dead branch and the green
branch are the same branch.

The cynic bites his finger because he can't understand.
Omar and Ali on the same throne, two kings in one belt.
Nightmares fill with light like a holiday.
Men and angels speak one language.
The elusive ones finally meet.

The essence and the evolving forms
run to meet each other like children
to their father and mother.
Good and evil, dead and alive, everything blooms
from one natural stem.

You know this already, I'll stop.
Any direction you turn it's one vision.
Shams, my body is a candle touched with fire.

-- Ghazal (Ode) 810
Version by Coleman Barks
Open Secret
Threshold Books, 1984

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