[Sunlight] "How can a lover be joined to sensuality?"

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In truth, love for the Illuminator of hearts keeps
Lovers awake all night without food and sleep.
Oh friend, if you are a lover, be like a candle:
Melt all night long, burn joyfully till morning!
He who is like cold weather in autumn is no
lover -- in autumn's midst the lover's heart is burning summer.
Dear friend, if you have a love you want to
proclaim, then shout like a lover! Shout! Shout!
But if you are chained by sensuality, make no
claims to Love -- enter the spiritual retreat and burn away your
chains!
Oh simple man, how can a lover be joined to
sensuality? How could Jesus eat from the same trough as his
ass?
If you want to catch the fragrance of these
symbols, then turn your eyes away from everything but Shams
al-Din of Tabriz!
But if you cannot see that he is greater than the
two worlds, you are still a wretch drowned in the ocean of
heedlessness.
So go before the teachers of conventional
knowledge -- busy yourself with jurisprudence and become a
master of the science of "This is permitted and that is
forbidden."
My spirit has passed beyond childhood in love
for Shams al-Din -- love for him is not mixed with raisins and
nuts.
My intellect has left me and my verses are
incomplete -- that is why my bow has no more designs and
wrappings.
Oh Jalal al-Din, sleep and abandon speech! No
leopard will ever catch that lion!

-- Ghazal (Ode) 1196
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

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~

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[Sunlight] "How can a lover be joined to sensuality?"

[Sunlight] Halves of the whole

~

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God instills the desire of every part for the other:
from their union, generation results.
And so night and day are in mutual embrace:
they appear to be opposites, even enemies,
but the truth they attend is one,
each desiring the other like kin,
for the perfection of their work.
Both serve one purpose, for without night,
human nature would receive no income:
what then could day expend?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mayl-e har jozvi beh-jozvi ham nehad
ze ettehâd-e har do tawlidi zehad
Shab chonin bâ ruz andar e`tenâq
mokhtalef dar surat ammâ ettefâq
Ruz o shab zâher do zedd o doshmanand
lik har do yek haqiqat mi tanand
Har yeki khvânân degar-râ hamcho khvish
az pay-e takmil-e fe`l o kâr-e khvish
Zânke bi shab dakhl na-bovad tab`-râ
pas cheh andar kharj ârad ruz-hâ

-- Mathnawi III:4416-4420
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

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[Sunlight] Halves of the whole

[Sunlight] "How long will this unconsciousness go on?" -- Ghazal 1022

~

Here, Sunlight offers Ghazal 1022, From Rumi's "Diwan-e
Shams", in a poetic version by Coleman Barks, and in the translation
by A.J. Arberry from which Professor Barks derived his version:

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

Yesterday at dawn, my Friend said, How long
will this unconsciousness go on?

You fill yourself with the sharp pain of Love,
rather than its fulfuillment.

I said, "But I can't get to You!
You are the whole dark night,
and I am a single candle.

My life is upsidedown
because of You!"

The Friend replied, I am your deepest being.
Quit talking about wanting Me!

I said, "Then what is this
restlessness?

The Friend, Does a drop
stay still in the Ocean?

Move with the Entirety,
and with the tiniest particular.

Be the moisture in an oyster
that helps to form one pearl.

-- Version by Coleman Barks
"Like This,"
Maypop, 1990

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

Yesterday at dawn passing by the Beloved said to me, "You
are distraught and unaware; how long will this go on?
My cheek is the envy of the rose; and have you filled your eye
with heart's blood in quest of the thorn?"
I said, "Before your stature the cypress is but a sapling!" I
said, "Before your cheek the heavens' candle is dark!"
I said, "Sky and earth are topsy-turvy on account of you; it
is no wonder therefore, if I have no access to you."
He said, "I am your soul and heart; why are you distracted?
Say no word, and remain weeping against my silvery bosom."
I said, You who have robbed my heart and soul of repose, I
have not the power to be still." He said at once,
"You are a drop of my sea; why do you utter still? Become
drowned, and fill the soul of the oyster shell with pearls."

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

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~

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[Sunlight] "How long will this unconsciousness go on?" -- Ghazal 1022

[Sunlight] "The Still-Point of Ecstasy" -- Ghazal 1529

~

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"The Still-Point of Ecstasy"

On the Night of Creation I was awake,
Busy at work while everyone slept.
I was there to see the first wink
and hear the first tale told.
I was the first one caught
in the hair of the Great Imposter.

Whirling around the still-point of esctasy
I spun like the wheel of heaven.

How can I describe this to you?
you were born later.

I was a companion of that Ancient Lover;
Like a bowl with a broken rim
I endured his tyranny.
Why shouldn't I be as lustrous as the King's cup?
I have lived in the room of treasures.
Why shouldn't this bubble become the sea?
I am the secret that lies at its bottom . . .

Sh . . . no more words
Hear only the voice within.
Remember, the first thing He said was:
"We are beyond words."

-- Ghazal (Ode) 1529
Interpretive version by Jonathan Star
(in cooperation with the translator Shahram Shiva)
"A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi"
Bantam Books, 1992

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~

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[Sunlight] "The Still-Point of Ecstasy" -- Ghazal 1529

[Sunlight] "Nothing but a figure of clay"

~

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

Wealth has no permanence: it comes in the morning,
and at night it is scattered to the winds.
Physical beauty too has no importance,
for a rosy face is made pale by the scratch of a single thorn.
Noble birth also is of small account,
for many become fools of money and horses.
Many a nobleman's son has disgraced his father by his wicked deeds.
Don't court a person full of talent either,
even if he seems exquisite in that respect:
take warning from the example of Iblis.
Iblis had knowledge, but since his love was not pure,
he saw in Adam nothing but a figure of clay.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Goft khvâjeh mâl-râ na-bud sabât
ruz âyad shab ravad andar jehât
Hosn-e surat ham na-dârad e`tebâr
keh shavad rokh zard az yek zakhm-e khâr
Sahl bâshad niz mehtarzâdegi
keh bud gherreh beh-mâl o bâragi
Ay basâ mehtarbachcheh keh shur o sharr
shod ze fe`l-e zesht khvod nang-e pedar
Por honar-râ niz agar bâshad nafis
kam parast o `ebrati gir az Belis
`Elm budesh chon na-budesh `eshq din
u na-did az dam ellâ naqsh-e tin

-- Mathnawi VI: 255-260
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

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

~

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[Sunlight] "Nothing but a figure of clay"