This week, Sunlight has offered a series of poems in
commemoration of the Urs, the wedding with the Beloved, of
Jalalu'ddin Rumi (the Urs is known in Persian as "vesal", "reunion
[with the Beloved]"). To close the week, Sunlight offers a poem by
Rumi's son, Sultan Valad*, recording the occasion of the passing of
Rumi:
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
From this foul, fulsome world, Rumi moved on
After ten sweet years with Hosam al-Din*
On a December's day, the seventeenth*
came to pass that proud monarch's moving on
Of years six hundred seventy and two
since the Hijra of the Prophet* had gone by
The eye of mankind wept so sore that day
its lightning struck and burned away the souls
A quaking overtook the earth that moment
in the heavens rose a wail of mourning
The people of the town, both young and old
wailed and wept and sighed in lamentation
The villagers nearby, both Greeks and Turks
in pain upon his loss rent wide their collars
all paid the corpse their last loving respects
Folks from every faith proved faithful to him --
in love with him the people of all nations
-- SVE 121
From Sultan Valad's "Valad nameh" (Persian, "The
Book of Valad), also known as "Ebteda nameh"
Translation by Professor Franklin D. Lewis
"Rumi, Past and Present, East and West"
Oneworld Publications, Oxford, 2000
(This poem edited (c) 12/12/00)
Sunlight notes:
* Sultan Valad -- Rumi's son, his biographer, and his spiritual
successor. Formally founded in the Mevlevi Order of Sufis, following
his father's teachings. Author of five books, four of poetry
("Ebtedâ-nâme, " "Rabâb-nâme," "Entehâ-nâme," "Dîvân-e Soltân
Valad") and one of prose ("Ma`âref")."
http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/sufi/sultan/http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/V/ValadSultan/index.htm* Hosam al-Din -- a sufi shaykh in his own right, Hosam al-Din acted
as Rumi's scribe, editor, and inspiration during the writing of the
Mathnawi. It's interesting to learn that the composition of the
Mathnawi was suspended when Hosam al-Din's wife died and he was
withdrawn in mourning. He also acted as an administrator of Rumi's
school in Konya.
* "December 17th" -- the Christian calendar equivalent of the fifth
day of Jumadi II. "Jumadi II" is the sixth month of the Arabic lunar
calendar.
* Seventy two and six hundred years since the Hijra of the Prophet --
"Hijra" (Arabic), the flight of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca (in
Sept., 622 A.D. per the Christian calendar) to Medina. The Muslim
calendar dates from the first day of the hijra.
A valuable Rumi link:
http://www.khamush.com/bio.htm
Urs -- “From this world, Rumi moved on”
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