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THE CENTER OF FIRE
No more wine for me!
I'm past delighting in the thick red
and the clear white.
I'm thirsty for my own blood
as it moves into a field of action.
Draw the keenest blade you have
and strike, until the head circles
about the body.
Make a mountain of skulls like that.
Split me apart.
Don't stop at the mouth!
Don't listen to anything I say.
I must enter the center of the fire.
Fire is my child
but I must be consumed
and become fire.
Why is there crackling and smoke?
Because the firewood and the flames
are still talking:
"You are too dense. Go away!"
"You are too wavering. I have solid form."
In the blackness those two friends keep arguing.
Like a wanderer with no face.
Like the most powerful bird in existence
sitting on its perch, refusing to move.
What can I say to someone so curled up with wanting,
so constricted in his love?
Break your pitcher against a rock.
We don't need any longer
to haul pieces of the ocean around.
We must drown, away from heroism,
and descriptions of heroism.
Like a pure spirit lying down, pulling
its body over it, like a bride her husband
for a cover to keep her warm.
-- Ghazal 1304
Version by Coleman Barks
"The Essential Rumi"
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995
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1 comment:
Thank you, this is excellent indeed.
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