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Here, Sunlight offers Ghazal 3034, from the "Diwan-e Shams" -
the "Collection of Shams", in a version by Coleman Barks, and in
translation by A.J. Arberry:
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Water opens the garden like a new friendship.
Leaf says to fruit, "Quit scratching your ear,
and come outside."
The sweet grape makes the deepest teacher,
because its trunk is spindly.
Lust is a winter the garden contracts in,
for how long? Too long.
Wash your face with Spring water.
Now a branch of blooms talks to the basil,
"Lie down."
Birds say to trees, "Hold us."
A rose to God: "Don't let winter come again."
The reply:
"Don't grieve over December,
or Mongol tribes that raid Khorasan.
That is my concern.
Juice doesn't flow from fruit
unless you squeeze them.
I give unnumbered life
when I take away the numbers.
I serve wine that gives no headache
when I withhold the headache wine.
But you go on painting pictures and blackening
pages of print, like smoke obscuring light.
Read the day instead of books.
Get off your horse and let him ride away,
the perfect equestrian."
-- Version by Coleman Barks, from a translation
by John Moyne
"These Branching Moments"
Copper Beech Press, 1988
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
O soul, the breeze of spring is coming, so that you may raise
your hand towards the rose garden.
Grass and lily, tulip and hyacinth said, "There grows what-
ever you sow."
Buds and rose blossoms came as a helmet so that the ugliness
of the thorn may not appear.*
Elevation has come to the tall cypress, it has found glory
after humiliation.
Spirit enters all the garden, for water displays spirit-bestow-
ing;
The beauty of the garden increases from water--it has come as
most blessed friendship.
Leaf has sent a message to fruit, "You come quickly, do not
scratch your ear."
That sweet grape is king of the fruits, because its tree was
emaciated.
In the winter of lust how long shall the garden of our heart re-
main imprisoned and walled in?
Seek the way from the heart, seek the moon from the soul;
what does the earth possess but dust?
Rise, wash your face, but with a water which beautifies the
cheek of the rose.
The branch of blossoms said to the basil, "Lay down what-
ever you posses in our path."
The nightingale said to the garden, "We are the quarry of
your snare."
The rose entreats God for mercy, "Do not put winter in com-
mand over us."
God says, "How does juice come out of fruit until you squeeze
it?
"Do not grieve over December and the raiding Gozz, and re-
gard this business as lying at my door.*
"Thanks and praise, joy and increase do not appear except
you lament.
"I will give you life unnumbered if I take away numbered life;
"I will give you wine without headache if I take away wine
that yields headache."
Though many pictures have knowledge, why do you go on
painting the pages?
Through you the face of the pages has been blackened; how
can you read the writing of day?
Have done with smoke; look at the light from the moon of the
Beloved in the dark night.
Enough, enough, come down from your horse, so that he may
ride forth, the horseman supreme.
-- Translation by A. J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 2"
The University of Chicago Press, 1991
* This line could be translated: "Bud and flowers came as
forgiveness so that you may not see the ugliness of the thorn."
* The nomadic Gozz tribes invaded and destroyed Khorasan in
the twelfth century.
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