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Here, Sunlight offers Ghazal (Ode) 171, in a translation by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi, in a version by Coleman Barks, and in a literal translation, with footnotes, from Dr. Ibrahim Gamard:
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When you show your face
even the stones begin to dance with joy.
When you lift your veil
the wise ones lose themselves in awe.
The reflection of your face turns the water
into a golden shimmer
and softens even the fire into a tender glow.
When I see your face,
the Moon and the few floating stars around it
lose their glory.
The Moon is far too old and dim
to be compared with a mirror.
Your breath touched my soul and
I saw beyond all limits.
In your presence Mars,
the god of war sits peacefully
by the side of Venus.
--Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Hidden Music
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I see Your Face, the stones start spinning!
You appear; all studying wanders.
I lose my place.
Water turns pearly.
Fire dies down and doesn't destroy.
In Your Presence I don't want what I thought
I wanted, those three little hanging lamps.
Inside Your Face the ancient manuscripts
seem like rusty mirrors.
You breathe; new shapes appear,
and the music of a Desire as widespread
as Spring begins to move
like a great wagon.
Drive slowly.
Some of us walking alongside
are lame!
-- Version by Coleman Barks
"Like This"
Maypop, 1990
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1941 When you reveal those rose-colored cheeks (of
yours),you make the stones whirl* from joy.
Put (your) head out from the veil once again, for the
sake of amazed lovers;
So that knowledge may lose the way, (and) the
intellectual may shatter (his) learning;
So that water may become a pearl* from your reflection,
(and) fire may quit war.
1945 With (the presence of) your beauty, I don't desire the
(lovely full) moon or those few little hanging lanterns (in
the heavens).
(And) with (the presence of) your face, I don't call the
ancient rusty sky a "mirror."
You breathed into and created this narrow world* in
another form once again.
O Venus,* make that harp melodious again, in desire for
his Mars-like eyes!
-- From "The Dîwân-é Kabîr" (or "Dîvân-é Shams-é Tabrîzî,"
"Kulliyât-é Shams") of Jalaluddin Rumi.
Translated from the Persian by Ibrahim Gamard
(7/01)
(c) Ibrahim Gamard (translation, footnotes, &
transliteration)
Footnotes:
(1941) you make the stones whirl: possibly a reference
to the rotation of millstones.
(1944) So that water may become a pearl: pearls were
believed to form when a drop of rain-water fell into the sea
and was consumed by an oyster. Here the process is imagined
as an immediate transformation.
(1947) You breathed into and created this narrow world:
in this line the Divine Beloved (God) is in the foreground.
It is a characteristic of Persian sufi poetry to be
ambiguous about whether the human beloved or the Divine
Beloved is addressed. Here, there is a reference to the
Divine creation with breath and sound: "He is the Originator
of the heavens and the earth. And if He decrees a thing, He
says to it, "Be!' And it is." (Qur'ân 2:117)
(1948) Venus: the planet associated with music and joy.
*******************
1941 chôn namây-î ân rokh-é gol-rang-râ
az Tarab dar charkh âr-î sang-râ
bâr-é dêgar sar berûn kon az Hijâb
az barây-é `âshiq-ân-é dang-râ
tâ ke dânesh gom kon-ad mar râh-râ
tâ ke `âqil be-sh'kan-ad farhang-râ
tâ ke âb az `aks-é tô gawhar shaw-ad
tâ ke âtesh wâ-hel-ad mar jang-râ
1945 man na-khwâh-am mâh-râ bâ Husn-é tô
w-ân dô-se qindîl-ak-é âhang-râ
man na-goy-am âyena bâ roy-é tô
âsmân-é kohna-yé por-rang-râ
dar damîd-î w-afrîd-î bâz tô
shakl-é dêgar în jahân-é tang-râ
dar hawây-é chashm-é chûn mirrîkh-é ô
sâz deh ay zuhra bâz ân chang-râ
(meter: XoXX XoXX XoX)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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