"A World Inside This World"

There is another world inside this one -
no words can describe it.
There is living, but no fear of death;
There is Spring, but never a turn to Autumn.
There are legends and stories
coming from the walls and ceilings.
Even the rocks and trees recite poetry.

Here an owl becomes a peacock,
A wold becomes a beautiful shepherd.
To change the scenery, change your mood;
To move around, just will it.

Stand for a moment
And look at a desert of thorns -
it becomes a flowery garden.
See that boulder on the ground?
It moves, and a mine of rubies appears.
Wash you hands and face
in the waters of this place -
The cooks have prepared a great feast!

Here all beings give birth to angels.
When they see me ascending to the heavens
every corpse springs back to life.

I have seen many kinds of trees
growing from the Earth,
But who has ever seen the birth of paradise?

I have seen water, but who has ever seen
one drop of water
give birth to a hundred warriors?

Who could ever imagine such a place?
Such a heaven? Such a Garden of Eden?

Whoever reads this poem - translate it.
Tell the whole world about this place!

-- Ghazal (Ode) 3401
Version by Jonathan Star from a translation by Shahram Shiva
"A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi"
Bantam Books, 1992

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"A World Inside This World"

"This appearance of identity"

All this dying is not the death of the physical form:
this body is only an instrument for the spirit.
There is many a martyred soul that has died to self in this world,
though it goes about like the living.
The animal self has died, though the body, which is its sword,
survives:
the sword is still in the hand of that eager warrior.
The sword is the same sword; the person is not the same person,
but this appearance of identity bewilders you.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In hameh mordan nah marg-e suratast
in badan mar ruh-râ chon âlatast
Ay basâ nafs-e shahid-e mo`tamad
mordeh dar donyâ cho zendeh mi ravad
Ruh rahzan mord o tan keh tigh-e ust
hast bâqi dar kaff-e ân ghazv-just
Tigh ân tighast mard ân mard nist
lik in surat torâ hayrân konist

-- Mathnawi V: 3281; 3826-3828
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyل Monastra)

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"This appearance of identity"

"The ruin where it is hidden"

The wonder is that colour came from the colourless:
how is it that colour came to fight the colourless?

Since the rose is born from the thorn, and the thorn
from the rose, why are they quarrelling?
Or is it not really war but divine purpose and artifice,
like the quarrels of merchants?
Or is it neither this nor that? Is it the perplexity? The
treasure must be sought; this perplexity is the ruin
where it is hidden.

-- Mathnawi I: 2470-2472/2474
Breathing Truth - Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi
Selected and Translated by Muriel Maufroy
Sanyar Press - London, 1997

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"The ruin where it is hidden"

"Which of them is the fairest?"

A beloved said to her lover,
"O youth, you've visited many cities,
which of them is the fairest?"
He replied, "The city where my sweetheart is."
Wherever the carpet is spread for our King,
there is the spacious plain,
even though it be as narrow as the eye of a needle.
Wherever a Joseph radiant as the moon may be,
Paradise is there, even though it be the bottom of a well.

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

Goft ma`shuqi be-`âsheq k-ay fatâ
to be-ghorbat dideh-'i bas shahr-hâ
Pas kodâmin shahr ze ân-hâ khvoshtarast
goft ân shahri keh dar vay delbarast
Har kojâ bâshad shah-e mâ-râ besât
hast sahrâ gar bovad samm al-khiyât
Mar kojâ keh Yusofi bâshad cho mâh
Jannatast archeh keh bâshad qa`r-e châh

-- Mathnawi III: 3808-3811
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyل Monastra

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"Which of them is the fairest?"

Pass beyond your nature

Pollute not your lips by kissing every mouth and
eating every food! Then the Beloved's lips will make them drunk and
feed them sugar.
Your lips will be freed from the odor of the lips
of "others" and your love will be made transcendent, pure and one.
The lips that kiss the ass's arse - how should the
Messiah bless them with his sugar kiss?
Know that everything other than the eternal light has
newly come into existence - why do you sit upon a heap of new
dung and ask for contemplation?
When the manure has been annihilated in the heart of
the vegetable patch, then it will be freed from its dungness and add
savor to food.
As long as you are excrement, how will you know the
joy of sanctification? Pass beyond your dung-nature and go to the
Blessed and Transcendent!
When Moses washed his hands and lips of Pharoah's
bounty, the Ocean of Generosity gave him the White Hand.*
If you want to escape the stomach and lips of all the
unripe, be full of pearls but bitter on the surface like the ocean.
Take heed! Turn your eyes away from others, for that
Eye is jealous. Take heed! Keep your stomach empty, for He has set
for you a table.
If a dog has eaten its fill, it will not catch any
game, for the running and racing of aspiration derives from hunger's
fire.
Where are a pure heart and pure lips to receive a pure
cup? Where is an agile Sufi to run after the halva?
Display the Realities in these words of mine, oh He
who passes us the wine and cup!

-- Ghazal (Ode) 96
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

* (Koran VII 108)

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Pass beyond your nature