RUMI, Jalaluddin


I died as a mineral and became a plant

I died as a mineral and became a plant,

I died as plant and rose to animal,

I died as animal and I was Man.

Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?

Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar

With angels blest; but even from angelhood

I must pass on: all except God doth perish.

When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,

I shall become what no mind e'er conceived.

Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence

Proclaims in organ tones, 'To Him we shall return.'

Translated by A.J. Arberry


What Shall I Be

I have again and again grown like grass;

I have experienced seven hundred and seventy moulds.

I died from minerality and became vegetable;

And from vegetativeness I died and became animal.

I died from animality and became man.

Then why fear disappearance through death?

Next time I shall die

Bringing forth wings and feathers like angels:

After that soaring higher than angels –

What you cannot imagine. I shall be that.


Because I cannot sleep

Because I cannot sleep

I make music at night.

I am troubled by the one

whose face has the color of spring flowers.

I have neither sleep nor patience,

neither a good reputation nor disgrace.

A thousand robes of wisdom are gone.

All my good manners have moved a thousand miles away.

The heart and the mind are left angry with each other.

The stars and the moon are envious of each other.

Because of this alienation the physical universe

is getting tighter and tighter.

The moon says, 'How long will I remain

suspended without a sun?'

Without Love's jewel inside of me,

let the bazaar of my existence be destroyed stone by stone.

O Love, You who have been called by a thousand names,

You who know how to pour the wine

into the chalice of the body,

You who give culture to a thousand cultures,

You who are faceless but have a thousand faces,

O Love, You who shape the faces

of Turks, Europeans, and Zanzibaris,

give me a glass from Your bottle,

or a handful of being from Your Branch.

Remove the cork once more.

Then we'll see a thousand chiefs prostrate themselves,

and a circle of ecstatic troubadours will play.

Then the addict will be freed of craving.

and will be resurrected,

and stand in awe till Judgement Day.

Quietness

Inside this new love, die.

Your way begins on the other side.

Become the sky.

Take an axe to the prison wall.

Escape.

Walk out like someone suddenly born into colour.

Do it now.

You're covered with thick cloud.

Slide out the side. Die,

and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign

that you've died.

Your old life was a frantic running

from silence.

 
The speechless full moon

comes out now.

Who am I?

What is to be done, O Moslems? For I do not recognize myself.

I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.

I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;

I am not of Nature’s mint, nor of the circling heavens.

I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;

I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity.

I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsín;

I am not of the kingdom of Irãqain, nor of the country of Khorãsãn.

I am not of this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell;

I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwãn.

My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless;

‘Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.

I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;

One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call.

He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward;

I know none other except ‘Yã Hú’ and ‘Yã man Hú.’

I am intoxicated with Love’s cup, the two worlds have passed out of my ken;

I have no business save carouse and revelry.

If once in my life I spent a moment without thee,

From that time and from that hour I repent of my life.

If once in this world I win a moment with thee,

I will trample on both worlds, I will dance in triumph for ever.

O Shamsi Tabríz, I am so drunken in this world,

That except of drunkenness and revelry I have no tale to tell.

A Moment Of Happiness

A moment of happiness,

you and I sitting on the verandah,

apparently two, but one in soul, you and I.

We feel the flowing water of life here,

you and I, with the garden's beauty

and the birds singing.

The stars will be watching us,

and we will show them

what it is to be a thin crescent moon.

You and I unselfed, will be together,

indifferent to idle speculation, you and I.

The parrots of heaven will be cracking sugar

as we laugh together, you and I.

In one form upon this earth,

and in another form in a timeless sweet land.

/////////////////////////////////////


In your light I learn how to love.

In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,

where no one sees you,

but sometimes I do,

and that sight becomes this art.

Drumsound rises on the air,

its throb, my heart.

A voice inside the beat says,

"I know you're tired,

but come. This is the way."

Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity?

Why would you refuse to give this joy to anyone?

Fish don't hold the sacred liquid in cups!

They swim the huge fluid freedom.”


I Am and I am Not

I'm drenched

in the flood

which has yet to come

I’m tied up

in the prison

which has yet to exist

Not having played

the game of chess

I’m already the checkmate

Not having tasted

a single cup of your wine

I’m already drunk

Not having entered

the battlefield

I’m already wounded and slain

I no longer

know the difference

between image and reality

Like the shadow

I am

And

I am not



With Passion

With

passion pray. With

passion work. With passion make love.

With passion eat and drink and dance and play.

Why look like a dead fish

in this ocean

of

God?



My Burning Heart

My heart is burning with love

All can see this flame

My heart is pulsing with passion

like waves on an ocean

my friends have become strangers

and I'm surrounded by enemies

But I'm free as the wind

no longer hurt by those who reproach me

I'm at home wherever I am

And in the room of lovers

I can see with closed eyes

the beauty that dances

Behind the veils

intoxicated with love

I too dance the rhythm

of this moving world

I have lost my senses

in my world of lovers



I Swear

I swear, since seeing Your face,

the whole world is fraud and fantasy

The garden is bewildered as to what is leaf

or blossom. The distracted birds

can't distinguish the birdseed from the snare.

A house of love with no limits,

a presence more beautiful than venus or the moon,

a beauty whose image fills the mirror of the heart.



Who makes these changes?

Who makes these changes?

I shoot an arrow right.

It lands left.

I ride after a deer and find myself

Chased by a hog.

I plot to get what I want

And end up in prison.

I dig pits to trap others

And fall in.

I should be suspicious

Of what I want.



The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honourably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

On the Deathbed

Go, rest your head on a pillow, leave me alone;

leave me ruined, exhausted from the journey of this night,

writhing in a wave of passion till the dawn.

Either stay and be forgiving,

or, if you like, be cruel and leave.

Flee from me, away from trouble;

take the path of safety, far from this danger.

We have crept into this corner of grief,

turning the water wheel with a flow of tears.

While a tyrant with a heart of flint slays,

and no one says, "Prepare to pay the blood money."

Faith in the king comes easily in lovely times,

but be faithful now and endure, pale lover.

No cure exists for this pain but to die,

So why should I say, "Cure this pain"?

In a dream last night I saw

an ancient one in the garden of love,

beckoning with his hand, saying, "Come here."

On this path, Love is the emerald,

the beautiful green that wards off dragonsnough,

I am losing myself.

If you are a man of learning,

read something classic,

a history of the human struggle

and don't settle for mediocre verse.