For those who love the poetry and stories of Jalal al-Din Rumi, the 13th century Sufi Mystic. Daily posts present a variety of translators and translations. Many English speaking people are coming to an appreciation of Rumi's poetry through the translations of Coleman Barks and Camille and Kabir Helminski. Examples of those popular works are offered on Sunlight, along with the lesser known translations of Nader Khalili, Jonathan Star, Annemarie Schimmel, William Chittick and Ibrahim Gamard.
Love of the dead does not last, because the dead will not return. But love of the living is in every moment fresher than a bud, both to the inward and the outward eye. Choose the love of that Living One who is everlasting, who offers you the wine that increases life. Do not say, "We have no entrance to that King." Dealings with the generous are not difficult.
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Zânke `eshq-e mordegân pâyendeh nist zânke mordeh su-ye mâ âyendeh nist `Eshq-e zendeh dar ravân o dar batar har dami bâshad ze ghonjeh tâzeh-tar `Eshq-e ân zendeh gozin ku bâqist kaz sharâb-e jân fazâyet sâqist To ma-gu mâ-râ badân shah bâr nist bâ karimân kâr-hâ doshvâr nist
-- Mathnawi I:217-219; 221 Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski "Rumi: Daylight" Threshold Books, 1994 Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra
Your love has prepared a feast for me; Reason came and sat in a corner; The wine was laughing in the cup, The jug was crying tears of blood. The wine, archer of joy, Has pierced the bird of sorrow with its arrows.
-- Ode (Ghazal) 508 Breathing Truth - Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi Selected and Translated by Muriel Maufroy Sanyar Press - London, 1997
God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.
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Ze ân hami gardândet hâli be-hâl zedd ba-zedd paydâ konân dar enteqâl Tâ do par bâshi keh morgh yek pareh `âjez âmad az paridan ay sareh
-- Mathnawi II: 1552; 1554 Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski "Rumi: Daylight" Threshold Books, 1994 Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra
Today, Sunlight offers a selection from the Mathnawi, Book VI, Verses 117-128, in an interpretive version by Coleman Barks, and in translation by Nicholson. Links to Persian resources may be found at the end of the post.
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When We Pray Alone
We are brought thick deserts, and we rarely refuse them. We worship devoutly when we're with others. Hours we sit, though we get up quickly after a few minutes, when we pray alone. We hurry down the gullet of our wantings.
But these qualities can change, as minerals in the ground rise inside trees and become tree, as plant faces an animal and enters the animal, so a human can put down the heavy body baggage and be light.
-- Version by Coleman Barks "The Essential Rumi" HarperSanFrancisco, 1995
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But they (the mystics) use a comparison and illustration, in order that a loving, feeble-minded man may apprehend (the truth). 'Tis not a simile, but 'tis a parable for the purpose of releasing (melting) the frozen intellect. The intellect is strong in the head but weak in the legs,* because it is sick* of heart (spiritually decayed) though sound of body (materially flourishing). Their (the unspiritual men's) intellect is deeply involved in the dessert (pleasures) of this world: never, never do they think of abandoning sensuality. In the hour of pretension their breasts are (glowing) like the orient sun, (but) in the hour of pious devotion their endurance is (brief) as the lightning. A learned man who shows self-conceit in (displaying) his talents is faithless as the world at the time for keeping faith.* At the time when he regards himself (with pride) he is not contained in the world: he has become lost in the gullet and belly, like bread. (Yet) all these (evil) qualities of theirs may become good: evil does not remain when it turns to seeking good. If egoism is foul-smelling like semen, (yet) when it attains unto the spirit (spirituality) it gains light. Every mineral that sets its face towards (aspires to evolve into) the plant (the vegetative state)-- life grows from the tree of its fortune. Every plant that turns its face towards the (animal) spirit drinks, like Khizr, from the Fountain of Life. Once more, when the (animal) spirit sets its face towards the (Divine)Beloved, it lays down its baggage (and passes) into the life without end.*
-- Mathnawi VI: 117-128 Translation and Commentary by Reynold A. Nicholson "The Mathnawi of Jalalu'ddin Rumi" Published and Distributed by The Trustees of The "E.J.W. Gibb Memorial"
*weak in the legs: "I.e. it has no strength to search after spiritual things." (Nicholson) *sick: "Literally, 'ruined.'" (Nicholson) *keeping faith: "I.e. when the time comes for him to make good his pretensions." (Nicholson) *lines 125-28: "See the note on I 3165-3168" ["The corn-seed sown in the earth becomes bread, which, when eaten, assimilated, and converted into sperm, produces the man endowed with spirit (vegetable, animal, and intellectual). The soul, as a mode of Divine Being, undergoes a similar evolution: in order that its inherent potentialities may be developed and exhibited, it descends into the world of matter, where from the lowest phases of soul-life it gradually rises to the highest and, having traversed the whole circle of existence and thus attained to the utmost perfection of which it is capable, gives itself up to God and realises its essential unity with Him."] (Nicholson, Commentary)
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