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Here, Sunlight offers Ghazal 2523, from the Diwan-e Shams, in poetic
translation by Nader Khalili, and in literal translation by A.J. Arberry:
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my dear heart
you're a fire worshiper
an explosive in flame
call on the cupbearer
to sprinkle the wine on you
to soothe your burn with water
that special cupbearer
the same one who sizzles
lives with wine and lips with kisses
the one who first calmed my mind
gave me a cup of fiery wine
and took me to a secret house
in that special house
dwelled a precious sweetheart
who offered me a choice
a tray full of gold
a tray full of flame
a few words i was told
this gold is soaked with fire
this fire is filled with gold
if you choose fire you'll end up with gold
if you choose the burden of gold
you'll lay heavy and cold
take the fire of the beloved and leap with joy
-- Translation by Nader Khalili
"Rumi - Fountain of Fire"
Cal-Earth Press, 1995
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Fire-worshipping heart of mine who spins like a ball in the fire*,
say to the Saqi, "Quick now, a glass of lees to begin with!"
Come, lip-biting Saqi, cook with wine and raw ones; bravo,
garden and orchard of vine from which you pressed the grapes!
I will give a hint no one gives; the hint is this, O fair of
stature, that on that night you transported me unselfed, you com-
mitted me to that moonface of mine.
You, reason, do you remember how, when the king of reason
out of love bestowed that fiery wine on me, at the first breath
you died?
That darling brought two dishes, one of fire, one full of gold;
if you take gold, it becomes fire, and if you set on fire, you win
the game.
See the proud Saqi! Extinguish that pretty fire! What do you
know of the power of fire, for there you are a little child?
Get out of the fire, you will rise happy out of Shams-al-din
Tabrizi; and if you flee into the gold, like gold you will have
congealed.
-- Translation by A.J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 2"
University of Chicago Press, 1991
* Perhaps a better translation is,
"... who burns like sulphur in a fire". (Arberry's footnote)
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