A Bird Without Wings

Here, Sunlight offers a version of Ghazal 721, from Jonathan
Star. A note regarding this version follows the poem.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

"A Lover Without a Tear"

One who does not have the Beloved
is like a person without a head.
One who flees the cage of love
is like a bird without wings.

What news could one have of the world
That the Keeper of Secrets does not have?

One who is pierced by the arrows of this glance
is like a warrior without a shield.

One who cannot look within himself
is like a man without valor.
One who can't open the door of his own heart
is like a lover without a tear.

He has placed a door
In the middle of this path.
Only He who has placed it
can open it.

They say, "Wake up, the dawn has come!"
But in our sky who sleeps?
Who gets up at dawn?
Our sky
is without a sunrise
and without a sunset.

You've only been here a few days
and you've become so friendly with life.
I can't even talk about death anymore.

You're on the journey home
And your donkey has fallen asleep
in the middle of the road!

-- Ghazal (Ode) 721
Version by Jonathan Star
"Rumi - In the Arms of the Beloved "
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York 1997

Sunlight note: Once again, a conversation has been taking place, in
which the accuracy and validity of versions is being questioned. A
Sunlight contributor and consultant advises that the line which reads
as:

"One who is pierced by the arrows of this glance
is like a warrior without a shield."

should be more accurately translated as

"Only the one who is not afraid of Love (doesn't have a shield
against Love)
can be hunted by the arrows of His/her glance."

It has been suggested that the complexity, depth, and challenge of
the latter, is not apparent in the former. Although he refers
to his offerings as "translations", Mr. Star does not speak or read
Persian. He variously acknowledges Nicholson, Ergin, and Shiva as
the sources of the translations from which he fabricates his
versions.

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A Bird Without Wings

"In prayer continually"

The ritual prayer is five times daily,
but the guide for lovers is the verse,
they who are in prayer continually. *
The headache of intoxication in those heads
isn't relieved by five times, nor by five hundred thousand.
"Visit once a week" is not the ration for lovers;
the soul of sincere lovers has an intense craving to drink.
"Visit once a week" is not the ration for those fish,
since they feel no spiritual joy without the Sea.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Panj vaqt âmad namâz o rahnamun
`âsheqân-râ fî salâtin dâ'imûn*
Nah beh-panj ârâm girad ân khomâr
keh dar ân sar-hâst ni pânsad hazâr
Nist "zur ghibban" vazifeh-ye `âsheqân
sakht mostasqist jân-e sâdeqân
Nist "zur ghibban" vazifeh-ye mâhiyân
zânkeh bi Daryâ na-dârand ons-e jân

*al-Ma`ârij, 23

-- Mathnawi VI:2669-2670
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyل Monastra

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"In prayer continually"

"No one in the world is as precious as you"

i swear my dear son*
no one in the entire world
is as precious as you are

look at that mirror
take a good look at yourself
who else is there above and beyond you

now give yourself a kiss
and with sweet whispers
fill your ears to the brim

watch for all that beauty
reflecting from you
and sing a love song to your existence

you can never overdo
praising your own soul
you can never over-pamper your heart

you are both
the father and the son
the sugar and the sugar cane

who else but you
please tell me who else
can ever take your place

now give yourself a smile
what is the worth of a diamond
if it doesn't smile

how can i ever put a price
on the diamond that you are
you are the entire treasure of the house

you and your shadow
are forever present in this world
you're that glorious bird of paradise*

-- Ghazal 2148, from the Diwan-e Shams
Poetic translation by Nader Khalili
"Rumi, Fountain of Fire"
Cal-Earth Press, 1994

Sunlight notes:

*my dear son: literally, "O son" [ay pesar] in the Persian. Could refer
to anyone, but here it probably refers to one of Rumi's disciples,
rather than his son, Sultan Walad. In general, Rumi uses such phrases
as "O son" and "O youth" to address the reader, as well as to add
syllables to a verse.
*glorious bird of paradise: the "homaa," a miraculous bird whose
shadow, if it should fall upon a man, destines him to become a king.
Therefore, this bird is a symbol good fortune.

-- Footnotes (c) Ibrahim Gamard, 2000

The media:
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"No one in the world is as precious as you"

"There are two kinds of intelligence"

Sunlight offers the Mathnawi* verses, from Book IV, lines
1960 - 1968, in a version by Coleman Barks, a version by
Camille and Kabir Helminski, a translation by William Chittick,
and in Persian transcription:

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

There are two kinds of intelligence: one acquired,
as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts
from books and from what the teacher says,
collecting information from the traditional sciences
as well as from the new sciences.

With such intelligence you rise in the world.
You get ranked ahead or behind others
in regard to your competence in retaining
information. You stroll with this intelligence
in and out of fields of knowledge, getting always more
marks on your preserving tablets.

There is another kind of tablet,
one already completed and preserved inside you.
A spring overflowing its springbox. A freshness
in the center of the chest. This other intelligence
does not turn yellow or stagnate. It's fluid,
and it doesn't move from outside to inside
through the conduits of plumbing-learning.

This second knowing is a fountainhead
from within you, moving out.

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

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

There are two kinds of intelligence.
One is that acquired by a child at school
from books and teachers, new ideas and memorization.
Your intelligence may become superior to others,
but retaining all that knowledge is a burden.
You who are so busy searching for knowledge
must be a preserving tablet, but the preserved tablet
is the one who has gone beyond all this.
For the other kind of intelligence is the gift of God:
its fountain is deep within the soul.
When the water of God-given knowledge surges from the breast,
it never stagnates or becomes impure.
And if its way to the outside is blocked, what harm is there?
For it flows continually from the house of the heart.
The acquired intelligence is like the conduits
which run into the house from the streets:
if those pipes become blocked, the house is bereft of water.
Seek the fountain within yourself.

-- Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996

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

The intellect is of two kinds: The first is
acquired. You learn it like a boy at school.
From books, teachers, reflection and rote, from
concepts and from excellent and new sciences.
Your intellect becomes greater than that of
others, but you are heavily burdened because of your
acquisition. ..
The other intellect is a gift of God. Its
fountainhead lies in the midst of the spirit.
When the water of knowledge bubbles up from
the breast, it will never become stagnant, old, or discolored.
If the way to the outside source should become
blocked, there is no reason to worry since the water keeps on
bubbling up from within the house.
The acquired intellect is like a stream led into a
house from outside.
If its way should be blocked, it is helpless. Seek
the fountain from within yourself!

-- Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany 1983

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

`Aql do `aqlast avval maksabi
keh dar âmuzi cho dar maktab sabi
Az ketâb o ustâd o fekr o zekr
az ma`âni vaz `olum-e khub o bekr
`Aql-e to afzun shavad bar digarân
lik to bâshi ze hefz-e ân gerân
Lawh-e hâfez bâshi andar dur o gasht
lawh-e mahfuz ust ku zin dar gozasht
`Aql-e digar bakhshesh-e Yazdân bovad
cheshmeh-ye ân dar miyân-e jân bovad
Chon ze sineh âb-e dânesh jush kard
nah shavad gandeh nah dirineh nah zard
Var rah-e nab`esh bovad basteh cheh ghamm
ku hami jushad ze khâneh dam be-dam
`Aql-e tahsili mesâl-e jui-hâ
kân ravad dar khâneh az kui-hâ
Râh-e âbesh basteh shod shod bi navâ
az darun-e khvishetan ju cheshmeh-râ

-- Mathnawi IV:1960-1968
transliteration courtesy of Yahyل Monastra

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

* "The Mathnawi" (also spelled "Masnavi") : the six volume
masterpiece written in Rumi's mature years, consisting of over
25,000 lines of stories and teachings. The term "mathnawi" means
rhymed couplets. -- Sunlight Ed.

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"There are two kinds of intelligence"

"Celebrate! The month of fasting has come"

Celebrate! The month of fasting has come.
Pleasant journey to the one
Who is in the company of the fasting.

I climbed the roof to see the Moon,
Because I really missed fasting
By heart and soul.

I lost my hat while looking at the Moon.
the Sultan of fasting made me drunk.

O Muslims, I have been drunk
since that day I lost my mind.
What a beautiful fortune fasting has.
What a wonderful glory.

There is another secret moon
Besides this one.
He is hiding in the tent of fasting
Like a Turk.

Anyone who comes
To the harvest of fasting in this month
Finds the way to this Moon.

Whoever makes his face
Resemble pale satin
Wears the silk clothes of fasting.

Prayers will be accepted in this month.
Sighs of the one fasting pierce the sky.

The person who sits patiently
At the bottom of fasting's well
Owns the love of Egypt, like Joseph.

O the word which eats the Sahur* meal,
Be silent so that anyone
Who knows fasting will enjoy fasting.

Come, O Shems, the brave one
Of whom Tebriz is proud.
You are the commander of fasting's soldiers.

*Sahur: Meal before dawn during Ramazan fast.

-- Ghazal No. 2344 from the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
Translated by Nevit Ergin
(from the Turkish translation of the original
Persian by Golpinarli)
"Mevlana Jelaleddin Rumi: Divan-i Kebir,"
Volume 18, 2002.

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"Celebrate! The month of fasting has come"