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Here, Sunlight offers Ghazal (ode) 2996, in a version by Jonathan Star, and in translation by William C. Chittick.
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"Inner Sunrise"
If I were the plaything of every thought
I'd be a fool, not a wise man.
If the Sun of Love was not my own
I'd be mournful like Saturn,
rising and falling in the night sky.
If I were not guided by the fragrance of Love's City
I'd have followed dark spirits
into the endless desert of greed.
If the soul's light had to stay inside its house
I'd open every door and window!
If the garden of the soul
did not comfort those in pain
I could not carry Love's message
on the east wind.
If lovers were not addicted to music and dancing
why would I sing all day and night
like a wailing flute?
If the Saaqi's weight-giving wine
had been kept from my mouth
I'd be like the thin lip of a cup!
If the Garden had no leaves or shade I'd be rootless
like the fortune-trees of deceitful men.
If God's servants were not upon the earth I'd have fallen into
the sin and folly of this world.
If there was no way from the grave to paradise I could not
behold the joyful heavens in this body.
If there was no road from East to West
I would not be dancing through the garden with the North
and South winds!
If the Abundant Garden did not grow my soul would never blossom.
If God's grace were not with me
I'd be a babbling fool!
Go within.
Hear the story of sunrise from the Sun itself.
if there were no sunrise within
I would have set long ago!
-- Version by Jonathan Star
"Rumi - In the Arms of the Beloved "
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York 1997
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Were I a plaything in the hand of every
heartache, I would not be clever and wise, but a fool.
Did not the sun of Love belong to me, like
Saturn I would sometimes ascend in grief, and sometimes
descend.
Were the fragments of Love's city not my guide,
I would be caught by the ghouls, like those lost in greed's
desert!
If the Sun of the spirits remained sitting in its
house, I would be busy with opening doors and coming and
going.
If the Rosegarden of the spirit did not caress the
afflicted, how could I be a messenger from the Garden of
Faithfulness, like the east wind?
Were Love not a sama-lover and tambourine-
addict, why would I be singing songs like a flute and a harp?
If my Saki did not give me a potion to make me
plump, I would be as thin as the lip of the cup.
Did not the Garden have branches and shade, I
would be without roots, like the trees of fortune of vile men.
Had not God's trust shone upon my earth, I
would be sinful, very foolish, like the earthly temperament.*
Were there no way from grave to paradise,
why am I so joyful and expansive in this grave of the body?
And were there no road from left to right, why
am I the companion of the north and south winds like the
garden?
Were there no Garden of Generosity, how could
I have blossomed? If not for God's Gentleness and Bounty, I
would be a meddlesome bore!
Enough! Listen to the story's sunrise from the
Sun! If there were no such sunrise, I would have set!
-- Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, 1983
* Chittick refers readers to an earlier section of the same volume,
a section which discusses the creation of God's viceregent, man.
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