"Wooden Walking Stick"

Friend, you are Moses. I the wooden
walking stock. Sometimes that simple use.

Other times, a dragon earth-energy. You
decide. There's no time or place in the air

you inhabit. The days you give me I give
back to you. I have seen your unseeable

beauty and taken report without words to
my heart, which became all eye with the news.

"Long life to eyes," says my heart now over
and over. Hundreds of candles search the

turning sky. No bread in the basket, no
money; home, family, work, in shambles, with

your light shining on the ruin. Crushed
in grief's mortar, let me be medicine for
other eyes. What is the soul? Half a leaf.
What is the heart? A flower opening. I am

not the one speaking here. Even so, I'll
stop. Anything anyone says is your voice.

-- Ghazal (Ode) 2236
Version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin
"The Glance"
Viking-Penguin, 1999

The media:
http://tinyurl.com/qnk3d

"Wooden Walking Stick"

"Entirely flame"

Here, Sunlight offers a selection from the Mathnawi, volume V,
verses 672 to 682, in a version by Professor Coleman Barks, and in
the reference translation by Professor Reynold Nicholson, from which
Barks derived his version:

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

"A Just-Finishing Candle"

A candle is made to become entirely flame.
In that annihilating moment
it has no shadow.

It is nothing but a tongue of light
describing a refuge.

Look at this
just-finishing candle stub
as someone who is finally safe
from virtue and vice,

the pride and the shame
we claim from those.

-- Version by Coleman Barks
"The Essential Rumi"
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

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

When, through (spiritual) proverty, fana (self-naughting)
graces him (such a one), he becomes shadowless like Mohammed.
Fana graced (the Prophet who said) 'Poverty is my pride'*:
he became shadowless like the flame of a candle.
(When) the candle* has become entirely flame from head to
foot, the shadow hath no passage (way of approach) around it.
The wax (candle) fled from itself and from the shadow into
the radiance* for the sake of Him who moulded the candle.
He said, 'I moulded thee for the sake of fana (self-
naughting).' It replied, 'I accordingly took refuge in fana.'
This is the necessary everlasting radiance, not the radiance
of the perishable accidental candle.
When the candle is wholly naughted in the fire (of Divine
illumination), you will not see any trace of the candle or rays
(of its light).
Manifestly, in dispelling the darkness, the external
(material) flame is maintained by a wax candle;
(But) the candle (which is) the body is contrary to the wax
candle, since in proportion as that (the body) dwindles, the light
of the spirit is increased.
This is the everlasting radiance, and that (bodily candle) is
perishable: the candle of the spirit hath a Divine flame.
Since this tongue of fire was (really) light, 'twas far from
it to become a perishable shadow.

-- Translation and Commentary by Reynold A. Nicholson
"The Mathnawi of Jalalu'ddin Rumi
Published and Distributed by
The Trustees of The "E.J.W. Gibb Memorial"

* Or, Fana graced (him who attained to the state denoted by the
Prophet's saying) "Poverty is my pride."
* I.e. the lover of God.
* I.e. the Light of God.

The media:
http://tinyurl.com/rmgtf

"Entirely flame"

"The door of repentance is never closed"

By the mercy of God, Paradise has eight doors —
one of those is the door of repentance, child.
All the others are sometimes open, sometimes shut,
but the door of repentance is never closed.
Come seize the opportunity: the door is open;
carry your baggage there at once.

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

Hast Jannat-râ ze rahmat hasht dar
yek dar tawbeh-st zân hasht ay pesar
n hameh gah bâz bâshad gah farâz
vân dar-e tawbeh na-bâshad joz keh bâz
Hin ghanimat dâr dar bâzast zud
rakht ânjâ kesh be-kuri hasud

-- Mathnawi IV: 2506-2508
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyل Monastra

The media:
http://tinyurl.com/pxw8c

"The door of repentance is never closed"

"One Whisper of the Beloved"

Lovers share a sacred decree –
to seek the Beloved.
They roll head over heels,
rushing toward the Beautiful One
like a torrent of water.

In truth, everyone is a shadow of the Beloved –
Our seeking is His seeking,
Our words are His words.

At times we flow toward the Beloved
like a dancing stream.
At times we are still water
held in His pitcher.
At times we boil in a pot
turning to vapor –
that is the job of the Beloved.

He breathes into my ear
until my soul
takes on His fragrance.
He is the soul of my soul –
How can I escape?
But why would any soul in this world
want to escape from the Beloved?

He will melt your pride
making you thin as a strand of hair,
Yet do not trade, even for both worlds,
One strand of His hair.

We search for Him here and there
while looking right at Him.
Sitting by His side we ask,
"O Beloved, where is the Beloved?"

Enough with such questions! –
Let silence take you to the core of life.

All your talk is worthless
When compared to one whisper
of the Beloved.

-- Ode 442
Version by Jonathan Star
A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi
Bantam Books, 1992

The English media:
http://tinyurl.com/nuglj

The Persian media:
http://tinyurl.com/p88w4

"One Whisper of the Beloved"

"Be a firm friend"

Firmness of heart is needed for achievement,
but a firm friend does not lack friends.
Be a firm friend, that you may find friends innumerable;
for without friends you will be left helpless.
Generally the wolf seizes his prey at the moment
when a year-old sheep has strayed alone from the flock.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Goft sedq-e del be-bâyad kâr-râ
var nah yârân kam niyâyad yâr-râ
Yâr shaw tâ yâr bini bi `adad
zânkeh bi yârân be-mâni bi madad
Gorg aghlab ângahi girâ bovad
kaz shishak be-khvod tanhâ ravad

-- Mathnawi VI: 497-498; 500
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyل Monastra

The media:
http://tinyurl.com/pu54d

"Be a firm friend"