[Sunlight] Inside this new love, die -- Ghazal 636

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Sunlight offers Ghazal (Ode) 636, in versions by Coleman Barks
and Jonathan Star, and in translation by A.J. Arberry:

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Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone
suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
You're covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign
that you have died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.

The speechless full moon
comes out now.

-- Version by Coleman Barks
"These Branching Moments"
Copper Beech Press, 1988

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"The Black Cloud"

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself in this love.
When you lose yourself in this love,
you will find everything.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Do not fear this loss,
For you will rise from the earth
and embrace the endless heavens.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Escape from this earthly form,
For this body is a chain
and you are its prisoner.
Smash through the prison wall
and walk outside with the kings and princes.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself at the foot of the glorious King.
When you lose yourself
before the King
you will become the King.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Escape from the black cloud
that surrounds you.
Then you will see your own light
as radiant as the full moon.

Now enter that silence.
This is the surest way
to lose yourself....

What is your life about, anyway? -
Nothing but a struggle to be someone,
Nothing but a running from your own silence.

-- Version by Jonathan Star
"Rumi - In the Arms of the Beloved "
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York 1997

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Die now, die now, in this Love die; when you have died in
this Love, you will all receive new life.
Die now, die now, and do not fear this death, for you will
come forth from this earth and seize the heavens.
Die now, die now, and break away from this carnal soul, for
this carnal soul is as a chain and you are as prisoners.
Take an axe to dig through the prison; when you have
broken the prison you will all be kings and princes.
Die now, die now before the beauteous King; when you
have died before the King, you will all be kings and renowned.
Die now, die now, and come forth from this cloud; when
you come forth from this cloud, you will all be radiant full moons.
Be silent, be silent; silence is the sign of death; it is because
of life that you are fleeing from the silent one.

-- Translation by A. J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 1"
The University of Chicago Press, 1968

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[Sunlight] Inside this new love, die -- Ghazal 636