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

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Today, 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 upon which Professor Barks based his version:

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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

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

[Sunlight] Recollection of God

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If your thought is frozen, practice remembrance of God.
Recollection of God brings thought into movement:
make remembrance the sun for this congealed thought.

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

In qadar goftim bâqi fekr kon
fekr agar jâmed bovad raw zekr kon
Zekr ârad fekr-râ dar ehtezâz
zekr-râ khvorshid-e in afsordeh sâz

-- Mathnawi VI: 1475-1476
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

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[Sunlight] Recollection of God

[Sunlight] "What are you doing?"

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Oh, you with unwashed face! What are you doing?
Whom are you fighting and envying?
You are playing with a lion's tail; you are charging
like a Turcoman, but at the angels!
Why do you call utter goodness "evil"? Beware!
Consider not your lowliness exaltation!
What is evil? The needy, despicable copper.
Who is the shaykh? The infinite elixir.
Even if the copper is not receptive to the elixir,
it will never be able to make the elixir into copper like
itself.
What is evil? A rebel that acts like fire. Who is the
shaykh? The very Sea of Eternity-without-beginning.
Fire always dreads water, but how should water
fear flames?
You find fault in the face of the moon, you pluck
thorns in paradise.
If you enter paradise looking for thorns, you will
find none there but yourself.

-- Mathnawi II, 3340-48
Translation by William C. Chittick
The Sufi Path of Love - The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1983

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[Sunlight] "What are you doing?"

[Sunlight] Don't plant anything but love -- Ghazal 916

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Today, Sunlight offers Ghazal (Ode) 916, from Rumi's "Diwan-e
Shams", in a recent translation by Kolin and Mafi, and in a version
by Coleman Barks:

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When you plant a tree
every leaf that grows will tell you,
what you sow will bear fruit.
So if you have any sense, my friend
don't plant anything but love,
you show your worth by what you seek.
Water flows to those who want purity
wash you hands of all desires and
come to the table of Love.

Do you want me to tell you a secret?
The flowers attract the most beautiful lover
with their sweet smile and scent.
If you let God weave the verse in your poem
people will read it forever.

-- Translation by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
"Rumi: Hidden Music"
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001

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Every Tree

Every tree, every growing thing as it
grows, says this truth: You harvest

what you sow. With life a short as a half-
taken breath, don't plant anything but

love. The value of a human being can
be measured by what he or she most deeply

wants. Be free of possessing things.
Sit at an empty table. Be pleased with

water, the taste of being home. People
travel the world looking for the Friend,

but that one is always at home! Jesus
moves quickly to Mary. A donkey stops

to smell the urine of another donkey.
There are simple reasons for what happens:

you won't stay clear for long if you sit
with the one who pours wine. Someone

with a cup of honey in hand rarely has
a sour face. If someone says a eulogy,

there must be a funeral nearby. A rose
opens because she is the fragrance she

loves. We speak poems, and lovers down
the centuries will keep saying them.

The cloth God weaves doesn't wear out.

-- Version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin
"The Glance"
Viking-Penguin, 1999

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[Sunlight] Don't plant anything but love -- Ghazal 916

[Sunlight] "Die before you die"

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The Messenger of good tidings said, speaking symbolically,
"Die before you die, generous ones,
even as I have died before death
and brought this reminder from Beyond."
Become the resurrection of the spirit,
so you may experience the resurrection:
this becoming is necessary for seeing and knowing
the real nature of anything.
Until you become it, you will not know it completely,
whether it be light or darkness.
If you become Reason, you will know Reason perfectly;
if you become Love, you will know Love's flaming wick.

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Bahr-e in goft Rasul-e khvosh payâm
ramz-e "Mûtû qabla mawt yâ kirâm
hamchonânkeh mordeh-'am min qabl mawt
z-ân taraf âvordeh-'am in sit o sawt"
Pas qiyâmat shaw qiyâmat-râ be-bin
didan-e har chiz-râ shartast in
Tâ na-gardi u na-dâni-'esh tamâm
khvâh ân anvâr bâshad yâ zolâm
`Aql gardi `Aql-râ dâni kamâl
`Eshq gardi `Eshq-râ dâni zobâl

-- Mathnawi VI: 754-758
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

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[Sunlight] "Die before you die"