Friday, January 09, 2009

[Sunlight] Bravery, compassion and pain -- Ghazal 2206

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Today, Sunlight offers Ghazal (Ode) 2206, from Rumi's "Diwan-e
Shams" ("The Collection of Shams), in a version by Professor Coleman
Barks, and in translation by Professor William Chittick:


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"Not Here"

There's courage involved if you want
to become truth. There is a broken-

open place in a lover. Where are
those qualities of bravery and sharp

compassion in this group? What's the
use of old and frozen thought? I want

a howling hurt. This is not a treasury
where gold is stored; this is for copper.

We alchemists look for talent that
can heat up and change. Lukewarm

won't do. Halfhearted holding back,
well-enough getting by? Not here.

-- Version by Coleman Barks
"The Soul of Rumi"
HarperSanFrancisco, 2001

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Brother! To be a lover you must have pain!
Where is your pain? Sincerity and patience require
a man. Where is the man?
How much longer will your invocation be
congealed and your meditation paralyzed? Where
are passionate cries and a yellow face?
I am not looking for the elixir or gold. Where
is a receptive piece of copper? How can even a
lukewarm disciple attain passionate love? What
then if he's cold?

-- Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1983

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