[Sunlight] Refuge -- Ghazal 122

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Here, Sunlight offers Ghazal (Ode) 122, in a poetic version by
Professor Coleman Barks and in literal translation by Professor A.J.
Arberry:

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Refuge

I see the lamp, the face, the eye,
an altar where the soul bows, a

gladness and refuge. My loving says,
"Here. I can leave my personality

here." My reason agrees! "How can
I object when a rose makes the bent

backs stand up like cypresses?" Such
surrender changes everything. Turks

understand Armenian! Body abandons
bodiness. Soul goes to the center.

Rubies appear in the begging bowl.
But don't brag when this happens.

Be secluded and silent. Stay in
the delight, and be brought the

cup that will come. No artfulness.
Practice quiet and this new joy.

-- Version by Coleman Barks
"The Soul of Rumi"
HarperCollins, 2001

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I beheld the lovely rosebower face, that eye and lamp of all
brightness,
That altar before which the soul prostrates, that gladness and
place of security.
The heart said, "I will yield up my soul there, I will let go
of being and selfhood."
The soul also joined in the concert and began to clap hands.
Reason came and said, "What shall I say regarding this good
fortune and sublime felicity,
This scent of a rose that made upright as a cypress every back
that was curved and bent double?"
In love all things are transformed; Armenian is changed to
Turk.
Soul, you have attained to the Soul of the soul; body, you have
abandoned bodihood.
The ruby is the alms of our Beloved; the dervish eats the gold
of the Rich;
That Mary in anguish discovers anew dates fresh and ripe.
Lest the eye of a stranger should fall upon it, do not show off
your good deed to men;
If your desire from faith is security, seek your security in
seclusion.
What is the place of seclusion? The house of the heart;
become habituated to dwell in the heart;
In the heart's house is delivered that bowl of wholesome and
everlasting wine.
Be silent, and practise the art of silence; let go all artful
bragging;
For the heart is the place of faith, there in the heart hold fast
to faithfulness.

-- Translation by A.J. Arberry
Mystical Poems of Rumi 1
The University of Chicago Press 1968/1991

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[Sunlight] Refuge -- Ghazal 122