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In this post, Sunlight offers Rumi's Ghazal (Ode) 3055, in version form by Barks and Cowan, and in translation by Arberry and Nicholson:
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You won't find another friend like me.
You spend your days in all directions.
No one accepts your money but me.
You're the dry ditch, and I am rain.
You're the rubble of a building.
I'm the architect.
There is only one sunrise a day.
In your sleep you see many shapes and people.
When you wake, you see nothing.
Close those eyes and open these eyes.
What you've been wanting is a donkey
lying sick on the ground.
What you've been doing is the bit and
halter on that donkey.
There's sweet syrup here where you've
been buying vinegar and unripened fruit.
Walk into the hospital.
There's no shame in going where everyone has to go.
Without that healing, you're a body with no head.
The mirror is black and rusty.
Who is the lucky man doing business with?
Think of the one who gave you thought.
Walk toward whoever gave you feet.
Look for the one behind your seeing.
Sing and clap because the whole ocean is a bit of foam.
No accidents are happening here.
Listen within your ear.
Speak without forming words.
Language turns against itself
and is likely to cause injury.
-- Version by Coleman Barks (based on a
translation by A.J. Arberry)
"These Branching Moments"
Copper Beech Press, 1988
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Be mindful, you'll not know a friend like me.
Where in the world is there such a Beloved?
Be mindful, don't spend your life wandering about,
There's no market elsewhere for you to splurge.
You are as an arid gully, I as rain,
You are a city in ruins, I the architect.
Know that my service is like joy at dawn,
Few men experience its illuminating warmth.
In dreams you see a myriad shifting images;
When the dream ends you're left with nought.
Close tight the eye of falsity, open wide the eye of
the intellect;
An ass is your senses, evil thoughts its halter.
Choose sweet syrup from the garden of Love, for Nature
Sells vinegar, and crushes unripened grapes.
Enter the hospital of your Creator, for no man
Who's ill can dispense with his remedies.
Without the King the world is decapitated:
Like a turban, fold yourself about its severed head.
Unless you're dark, don't let the mirror fall
From your hand: soul is your mirror, your body rust.
Where is the lucky merchant, whose destiny Jupiter
Controls, that I may trade with him and buy his wares?
Come, remember me who gave you the ability to think,
From my mine you may yet buy an ass-load of rubies.
Come, walk towards him who gave you feet,
Look with both eyes on him who gave you sight.
Clap hands for joy of him, by whose foamy hand
the sea is made. His joy dispels sorrow and pain.
Speak without tongue, without ears listen,
The tongue's mutterings often give offence.
-- Version by James Cowan (based on R.A. Nicholson's
"Divan-I Shems-I Tabriz" translation)
"Rumi's Divan of Shems of Tabriz, Selected Odes
Element Books Limited 1997
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Come, come, for you will not find another friend like me;
where indeed in both worlds is a beloved like me?
Come, come, and do not pass your days in every direction, for
there is no other market elsewhere for your money.
You are like a dry water conduit and I am like the rain; you
are like a ruined city and I am like the architect.
Except in serving me, which is the sunrise of joy, men have
never seen and never will see any mark of happiness.
In sleep you see a thousand moving forms; when sleep has
gone, you see not a single creature.
Close the eye of wrong and open the eye of intelligence, for
the carnal soul has fallen like an ass, and concupiscence is the halter.
Seek sweet syrup from the garden of love, for human nature
is a vinegar-seller and a crusher of unripe grapes.
Come to the hospital of your Creator, for no sick man can do
without that physician.
The world without that king is like the body without its head;
wind round such a head as a turban.
If you are not black, let not the mirror go from your hand; for the
soul is your mirror and the body is rust.
Where is the lucky merchant with Jupiter in ascension, that I
may do that business with him and purchase his goods?
Come, think of me who gave you thought; if you are buying
rubies, at least buy from my mine.
Go on foot towards him who gave you a foot, gaze on him with both
eyes who gave you sight.
Clap hands for joy for him from whose sea is the foam, for
there is no grief or sorrow happening to him.
Listen without ears; speak unto him without a tongue, for the
speech of the tongue is not without contradiction and injury.
-- Translation by A.J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 2"
The University of Chicago Press, 1991
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XLV.
Come, come, for you will not find another friend like
me.
Where indeed is a Beloved like me in all the world?
Come, come, and do not spend your life in wandering
to and fro,
Since there is no market elsewhere for your money*.
You are as a dry valley and I as the rain,
You are as a ruined city and I as the architect.
Except my service, which is joy's sunrise,
Man never has felt and never will feel an impression of
joy*.
You behold in dreams* a thousand moving shapes;
When the dream is past you do not see a single one of
the kind*.
Close the eye that sees falsely and open the intellectual
eye*,
For the senses resemble an ass, and evil desire is the
halter.
Seek sweet syrup* in the garden of Love,
For Nature is a seller of vinegar and a crusher of
unripened grapes.
Come to the hospital of your own Creator:
No sick man can dispense with that Physician*.
The world without that King is like a headless body:
Fold yourself, turbanwise, round such a head*.
Unless you are black*, do not let the mirror go from
your hand:
The soul is your mirror, while the body is rust.
Where is the fortunate merchant, whose destiny Jupiter
controls*,
That I may eagerly trade with him and buy his wares?
Come, and think of me who gave you the faculty of
thought,
Since from my mine you may purchase an ass-load of
rubies.
Come, advance towards him who gave you a foot,
Look with all your eyes on him who gave you an eye.
Clap your hands for joy of him, by whose sea the hand
(foam) is produced,
For his joy admits no sorrow nor affliction.
Listen without ears, speak to him without the tongue,
Since the speech of the tongue is not without offence
and injury.
-- Translation by R.A. Nicholson
(Ode 242.15 [Lachnau Edition of the Divani Shamsi Tabriz])
"Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz"
Edited and translated by Reynold A. Nicholson
Cambridge, At the University Press, 1898, 1952
Nicholson's notes:
* "money" "the pure gold of the spirit."
* "impression of joy" "signifies the different points of the horizon,
from whence the sun rises in the course of the year' (Sale's Kor'an,
Vol. II. P. 309, note)."
* "in dreams" "the sleep of phenomenal existence. Our birth is but
a sleep and a forgetting.'"
* "a single one of the kind" "literally, a dweller, is mostly used with
a negative, and seldom occurs in Persian except in the phrase there is
no one.'"
* "eye of the intellect" " the intelligentiae oculus' described by
Richard of St Victor (Vaughan's Hours with the Mystics,' Vol. 1.
P. 128):
An eye within. . . one that beholds at once the past,
the present, and the future; which diffuses through all
things the keen brightness of its vision; which penetrates
what is hidden, investigates what is impalpable; which
needs no foreign light wherewith to see, but gazes by a
light of its own, peculiar to itself.
The animal soul is driven blindly along by its ruling passion.
Cf. T. 204. 5:
Sensual desire is a bridle, and men are as camels:
Do not suppose that there is any bridlions are the only obstacles
to union with the Divinity."
* "sweet syrup" " probably here means honey'. . . The poet
obviously contrasts honey with vinegar, as the sweet fruits of
the spirit with the bitter gall of worldly lusts."
* "Physician" "cf. T. 210. 12a:
Love came to me at morn in the guise of a physician;
He laid his hand on my vein and said, The pulse is
weak.'"
* "Fold yourself, turbanwise, round such a head" "for
this word-play cf. T. 247. 2; 251. 12. From Professor Cowell's
MS. (C2) I quote the following beyt, because it affords another
example of aghileh' (shackle, tether, bond):
You are in the bonds of (absorbed in) the arrangement
of beard and turban:
How will you gain Him who quaffs the mighty flagon
(of love)?"
* "black" "buried in the dark attributes of Not-being.
Your soul, which should reflect the truth, is obscured by
pride and self will. Cf. Masnavi, 176. 9:
The rust, coat on coat, O black kettle,
Has corrupted thy interior aspect."
* "Where is the fortunate merchant, whose destiny Jupiter
controls" "born under a happy star." cf. Sa'di, Gulistan,'
p. 23, fourth line from the foot:
How long will this mart remain busy?"
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