A Selection of Poetry by Rumi Various translators, sources

Be Lost in the Call Lord, said David, since you do not need us, why did you create these two worlds? Reality replied: O prisoner of time, I was a secret treasure of kindness and generosity, and I wished this treasure to be known, so I created a mirror: its shining face, the heart; its darkened back, the world; The back would please you if you've never seen the face. Has anyone ever produced a mirror out of mud and straw? Yet clean away the mud and straw, and a mirror might be revealed. Until the juice ferments a while in the cask, it isn't wine. If you wish your heart to be bright, you must do a little work. My King addressed the soul of my flesh: You return just as you left. Where are the traces of my gifts? We know that alchemy transforms copper into gold. This Sun doesn't want a crown or robe from God's grace. He is a hat to a hundred bald men, a covering for ten who were naked. Jesus sat humbly on the back of an ass, my child! How could a zephyr ride an ass? Spirit, find your way, in seeking lowness like a stream. Reason, tread the path of selflessness into eternity. Remember God so much that you are forgotten. Let the caller and the called disappear; be lost in the Call. "Love is a Stranger", Kabir Helminski Threshold Books, 1993

O you who've gone on pilgrimage where are you, where, oh where? Here, here is the Beloved! Oh come now, come, oh come! Your friend, he is your neighbor, he is next to your wall You, erring in the desert what air of love is this? If you'd see the Beloved's form without any form You are the house, the master, You are the Kaaba, you! . . . Where is a bunch of roses, if you would be this garden? Where, one soul's pearly essence when you're the Sea of God? That's true - and yet your troubles may turn to treasures rich How sad that you yourself veil the treasure that is yours! Rumi 'I Am Wind, You are Fire' Translation by Annemarie Schimmel

 Oh, if a tree could wander and move with foot and wings! It would not suffer the axe blows and not the pain of saws! For would the sun not wander away in every night ? How could at ev?ry morning the world be lighted up? And if the ocean?s water would not rise to the sky, How would the plants be quickened by streams and gentle rain? The drop that left its homeland, the sea, and then returned ? It found an oyster waiting and grew into a pearl. Did Yusaf not leave his father, in grief and tears and despair? Did he not, by such a journey, gain kingdom and fortune wide? Did not the Prophet travel to far Medina, friend? And there he found a new kingdom and ruled a hundred lands. You lack a foot to travel? Then journey into yourself! And like a mine of rubies receive the sunbeams? print! Out of yourself ? such a journey will lead you to your self, It leads to transformation of dust into pure gold! Look! This is Love - Poems of Rumi, Annemarie Schimme

 Come, come, whoever you are. Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow a thousand times Come, yet again, come, come. We are as the flute, and the music in us is from thee; we are as the mountain and the echo in us is from thee. We are as pieces of chess engaged in victory and defeat: our victory and defeat is from thee, O thou whose qualities are comely! Who are we, O Thou soul of our souls, that we should remain in being beside thee? We and our existences are really non-existence; thou art the absolute Being which manifests the perishable. We all are lions, but lions on a banner: because of the wind they are rushing onward from moment to moment. Their onward rush is visible, and the wind is unseen: may that which is unseen not fail from us! Our wind whereby we are moved and our being are of thy gift; our whole existence is from thy bringing into being. Masnavi Book I, 599-607

 On the DeathbedGo, 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. Kulliyat-i-Shams 2039

 This Marriage May these vows and this marriage be blessed. May it be sweet milk, this marriage, like wine and halvah. May this marriage offer fruit and shade like the date palm. May this marriage be full of laughter, our every day a day in paradise. May this marriage be a sign of compassion, a seal of happiness here and hereafter. May this marriage have a fair face and a good name, an omen as welcomes the moon in a clear blue sky. I am out of words to describe how spirit mingles in this marriage. Kulliyat-i-Shams 2667 This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence. Existence: This place made from our love for that emptiness! Yet somehow comes emptiness, this existence goes. Praise to that happening, over and over! For years I pulled my own existence out of emptiness. Then one swoop, one swing of the arm, that work is over.

Free of who I was, free of presence, free of dangerous fear, hope, free of mountainous wanting. The here-and-now mountain is a tiny piece of a piece of straw blown off into emptiness. These words I'm saying so much begin to lose meaning: Existence, emptiness, mountain, straw: Words and what they try to say swept out the window, down the slant of the roof. "It is said that after Muhammad and the prophets revelation does not descend upon anyone else. Why not? In fact it does, but then it is not called 'revelation.' It is what the Prophet referred to when he said, 'The believer sees with the Light of God.' When the believer looks with 'The believer sees with the Light of God.' When the believer looks with God's Light, he sees all things: the first and the last, the present and the absent. For how can anything be hidden from God's Light? And if something is hidden, then it is not the Light of God. Therefore the meaning of revelation exists, even if it is not called revelation." Fihi ma fihi [Discourses of Rumi] quoted from William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi

 The drum of the realization of the promise is beating, we are sweeping the road to the sky. Your joy is here today, what remains for tomorrow? The armies of the day have chased the army of the night, Heaven and earth are filled with purity and light. Oh! joy for he who has escaped from this world of perfumes and color! For beyond these colors and these perfumes, these are other colors in the heart and the soul. Oh! joy for this soul and this heart who have escaped the earth of water and clay, Although this water and this clay contain the hearth of the philosophical stone.

(Mystic Odes 473) At every instant and from every side, resounds the call of Love: We are going to sky, who wants to come with us? We have gone to heaven, we have been the friends of the angels, And now we will go back there, for there is our country. We are higher than heaven, more noble than the angels: Why not go beyond them? Our goal is the Supreme Majesty. What has the fine pearl to do with the world of dust? Why have you come down here? Take your baggage back. What is this place? Luck is with us, to us is the sacrifice!...

Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul. Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul. How could this bird, born from that sea, make his dwelling here? No, we are the pearls from the bosom of the sea, it is there that we dwell: Otherwise how could the wave succeed to the wave that comes from the soul? The wave named 'Am I not your Lord' has come, it has broken the vessel of the body; And when the vessel is broken, the vision comes back, and the union with Him.

Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, 'Rumi and Sufism' trans. Simone Fattal Sausalito, CA: Post-Apollo Press, 1977, 1987. Our death is our wedding with eternity. What is the secret? "God is One." The sunlight splits when entering the windows of the house. This multiplicity exists in the cluster of grapes; It is not in the juice made from the grapes. For he who is living in the Light of God, The death of the carnal soul is a blessing. Regarding him, say neither bad nor good, For he is gone beyond the good and the bad. Fix your eyes on God and do not talk about what is invisible, So that he may place another look in your eyes. It is in the vision of the physical eyes That no invisible or secret thing exists. But when the eye is turned toward the Light of God

What thing could remain hidden under such a Light? Although all lights emanate from the Divine Light Don't call all these lights "the Light of God"; It is the eternal light which is the Light of God, The ephemeral light is an attribute of the body and the flesh. ...Oh God who gives the grace of vision! The bird of vision is flying towards You with the wings of desire. (Mystic Odes 833) I've said before that every craftsman searches for what's not there to practice his craft. A builder looks for the rotten hole where the roof caved in. A water-carrier picks the empty pot. A carpenter stops at the house with no door. Workers rush toward some hint of emptiness, which they then start to fill. Their hope, though, is for emptiness, so don't think you must avoid it. It contains what you need! Dear soul, if you were not friends with the vast nothing inside, why would you always be casting you net into it, and waiting so patiently? This invisible ocean has given you such abundance, but still you call it "death", that which provides you sustenance and work.

God has allowed some magical reversal to occur, so that you see the scorpion pit as an object of desire, and all the beautiful expanse around it, as dangerous and swarming with snakes. This is how strange your fear of death and emptiness is, and how perverse the attachment to what you want. Now that you've heard me on your misapprehensions, dear friend, listen to Attar's story on the same subject. He strung the pearls of this about King Mahmud, how among the spoils of his Indian campaign there was a Hindu boy, whom he adopted as a son. He educated and provided royally for the boy and later made him vice-regent, seated on a gold throne beside himself. One day he found the young man weeping.. "Why are you crying? You're the companion of an emperor! The entire nation is ranged out before you like stars that you can command!" The young man replied, "I am remembering my mother and father, and how they scared me as a child with threats of you! 'Uh-oh, he's headed for King Mahmud's court! Nothing could be more hellish!' Where are they now when they should see me sitting here?" This incident is about your fear of changing. You are the Hindu boy. Mahmud, which means Praise to the End, is the spirit's poverty or emptiness.

The mother and father are your attachment to beliefs and blood ties and desires and comforting habits. Don't listen to them! They seem to protect but they imprison. They are your worst enemies. They make you afraid of living in emptiness. Some day you'll weep tears of delight in that court, remembering your mistaken parents! Know that your body nurtures the spirit, helps it grow, and gives it wrong advise. The body becomes, eventually, like a vest of chain mail in peaceful years, too hot in summer and too cold in winter. But the body's desires, in another way, are like an unpredictable associate, whom you must be patient with. And that companion is helpful, because patience expands your capacity to love and feel peace. The patience of a rose close to a thorn keeps it fragrant. It's patience that gives milk to the male camel still nursing in its third year, and patience is what the prophets show to us. The beauty of careful sewing on a shirt is the patience it contains. Friendship and loyalty have patience as the strength of their connection. Feeling lonely and ignoble indicates that you haven't been patient.

Be with those who mix with God as honey blends with milk, and say, "Anything that comes and goes, rises and sets, is not what I love." else you'll be like a caravan fire left to flare itself out alone beside the road.

Rumi VI (1369-1420) from 'Rumi : One-Handed Basket Weaving

"NOONE" says it better: What is the mi'raj12 mi'raj according to Islamic tradition is the ascend of Muhammad to heavens from the Al Aksa mosque in Jerusalem. of the heavens? Non-existence. The religion and creed of the lovers is non- existence. Masnavi VI 233

 These spiritual window-shoppers, who idly ask, 'How much is that?' Oh, I'm just looking. They handle a hundred items and put them down, shadows with no capital. What is spent is love and two eyes wet with weeping. But these walk into a shop, and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment, in that shop. Where did you go? "Nowhere." What did you have to eat? "Nothing much." Even if you don't know what you want, buy _something,_ to be part of the exchanging flow. Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah. It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you. Rumi, 'We Are Three', Mathnawi VI, 831-845

 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.

Soul receives from soul that knowledge, therefore not by book nor from tongue. If knowledge of mysteries come after emptiness of mind, that is illumination of heart. If thou wilt be observant and vigilant, thou wilt see at every moment the response to thy action. Be observant if thou wouldst have a pure heart, for something is born to thee in consequence of every action.

 I said, 'Thou art harsh, like such a one.' 'Know,' he replied, 'That I am harsh for good, not from rancor and spite. Whoever enters saying, "This I," I smite him on the brow; For this is the shrine of Love, o fool! it is not a sheep cote! Rub thine eyes, and behold the image of the heart.' Make yourself free from self at one stroke! Like a sword be without trace of soft iron; Like a steel mirror, scour off all rust with contrition. A Star Without a Name When a baby is taken from the wet nurse, it easily forgets her and starts eating solid food. Seeds feed awhile on ground, then lift up into the sun. So you should taste the filtered light

and work your way toward wisdom with no personal covering. That's how you came here, like a star without a name. Move across the night sky with those anonymous lights. (Mathnawi III, 1284-1288) "Say I am You" Coleman Barks Maypop, 1994

God has given us a dark wine so potent that, drinking it, we leave the two worlds. God has put into the form of hashish a power to deliver the taster from self-consciousness. God has made sleep so that it erases every thought. God made Majnun love Layla so much that just her dog would cause confusion in him. There are thousands of wines that can take over our minds. Don't think all ecstacies are the same! Jesus was lost in his love for God. His donkey was drunk with barley.

Drink from the presence of saints, not from those other jars. Every object, every being, is a jar full of delight. Be a conoisseur, and taste with caution. Any wine will get you high. Judge like a king, and choose the purest, the ones unadulterated with fear, or some urgency about "what's needed." Drink the wine that moves you as a camel moves when it's been untied, and is just ambling about. Mathnawi IV, 2683-96 The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks

 Gone to the Unseen At last you have departed and gone to the Unseen. What marvelous route did you take from this world? Beating your wings and feathers, you broke free from this cage. Rising up to the sky you attained the world of the soul. You were a prized falcon trapped by an Old Woman. Then you heard the drummer's call and flew beyond space and time. As a lovesick nightingale, you flew among the owls. Then came the scent of the rosegarden and you flew off to meet the Rose. The wine of this fleeting world caused your head to ache. Finally you joined the tavern of Eternity. Like an arrow, you sped from the bow and went straight for the bull's eye of bliss. This phantom world gave you false signs But you turned from the illusion and journeyed to the land of truth. You are now the Sun what need have you for a crown? You have vanished from this world what need have you to tie your robe? I've heard that you can barely see your soul. But why look at all? yours is now the Soul of Souls! O heart, what a wonderful bird you are. Seeking divine heights,

Flapping your wings, you smashed the pointed spears of your enemy. The flowers flee from Autumn, but not you You are the fearless rose that grows amidst the freezing wind. Pouring down like the rain of heaven you fell upon the rooftop of this world. Then you ran in every direction and escaped through the drain spout . . . Now the words are over and the pain they bring is gone. Now you have gone to rest in the arms of the Beloved. "Rumi - In the Arms of the Beloved", Jonathan Star New York 1997

 How did you get away? You were the pet falcon of an old woman. Did you hear the falcon-drum? You were a drunken songbird put in with owls. Did you smell the odor of a garden? You got tired of sour fermenting and left the tavern. You went like an arrow to the target from the bow of time and place. The man who stays at the cemetery pointed the way, but you didn't go. You became light and gave up wanting to be famous. You don't worry about what you're going to eat, so why buy an engraved belt? I've heard of living at the center, but what about leaving the center of the center? Flying toward thankfulness, you become the rare bird with one wing made of fear, and one of hope. In autumn, a rose crawling along the ground in the cold wind. Rain on the roof runs down and out by the spout as fast as it can. Talking is pain. Lie down and rest, now that you've found a friend to be with. "These Branching Moments", Coleman Barks Copper Beech Press, 1988

 He Comes He comes, a moon whose like the sky ne'er saw, awake or dreaming. Crowned with eternal flame no flood can lay. Lo, from the flagon of thy love, O Lord, my soul is swimming, And ruined all my body's house of clay! When first the Giver of the grape my lonely heart befriended, Wine fired my bosom and my veins filled up; But when his image all min eye possessed, a voice descended: 'Well done, O sovereign Wine and peerless Cup!' Love's mighty arm from roof to base each dark abode is hewing, Where chinks reluctant catch a golden ray. My heart, when Love's sea of a sudden burst into its viewing, Leaped headlong in, with 'Find me now who may!' As, the sun moving, clouds behind him run, All hearts attend thee, O Tabriz's Sun! R. A. Nicholson 'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972

 Poor copies out of heaven's originals, Pale earthly pictures mouldering to decay, What care although your beauties break and fall, When that which gave them life endures for aye? Oh never vex thine heart with idle woes: All high discourse enchanting the rapt ear, All gilded landscapes and brave glistering shows Fade-perish, but it is not as we fear. Whilst far away the living fountains ply, each petty brook goes brimful to the main Since baron nor fountain can for ever die, Thy fears how foolish, thy lament how vain! What is this fountain, wouldst thou rightly know? The Soul whence issue all created things. Doubtless the rivers shall not cease to flow, Till silenced are the everlasting springs. Farewell to sorrow, and with quiet mind Drink long and deep: let others fondly deem The channel empty they perchance may find, Or fathom that unfathomable stream. The moment thou to this low world wast given, A ladder stood whereby thou might'st aspire; And first thy steps, which upward still have striven, From mineral mounted to the plant; then higher To animal existence; next, the Man, With knowledge, reason, faith. Oh wondrous goal! This body, which a crumb of dust beganHow fairly fashioned the consummate whole! Yet stay not here thy journey: thou shalt grow An angel bright and home far off in heaven.

Plod on, plunge last in the great Sea, that so Thy little drop make oceans seven times seven. 'The Son of God!' Nay, leave that word unsaid, Say: 'God is One, the pure, the single Truth.' What though thy frame be withered, old, and dead, If the soul keep her fresh immortal youth? R. A. Nicholson 'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972
DEPARTURE Up, O ye lovers, and away! 'Tis time to leave the world for aye. Hark, loud and clear from heaven the from of parting calls-let none delay! The cameleer hat risen amain, made ready all the camel-train, And quittance now desires to gain: why sleep ye, travellers, I pray? Behind us and before there swells the din of parting and of bells; To shoreless space each moment sails a disembodied spirit away. From yonder starry lights, and through those curtain-awnings darkly blue, Mysterious figures float in view, all strange and secret things display. From this orb, wheeling round its pole, a wondrous slumber o'er thee stole: O weary life that weighest naught, O sleep that on my soul dost weigh! O heart, toward they heart's love wend, and O friend, fly toward the Friend, Be wakeful, watchman, to the end: drowse seemingly no watchman may. R. A. Nicholson 'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972

 REMEMBERED MUSIC 'Tis said, the pipe and lute that charm our ears Derive their melody from rolling spheres; But Faith, o'erpassing speculation's bound, Can see what sweetens every jangled sound. We, who are parts of Adam, heard with him The song of angels and of seraphim. Out memory, though dull and sad, retains Some echo still of those unearthly strains. Oh, music is the meat of all who love, Music uplifts the soul to realms above. The ashes glow, the latent fires increase: We listen and are fed with joy and peace. R. A. Nicholson 'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972 THE SPIRIT OF THE SAINTS There is a Water that flows down from Heaven To cleanse the world of sin by grace Divine. At last, its whole stock spent, its virtue gone. Dark with pollution not its own, it speeds Back to the Fountain of all purities; Whence, freshly bathed, earthward it sweeps again, Trailing a robe of glory bright and pure. This Water is the Spirit of the Saints, Which ever sheds, until itself is beggared,

God's balm on the sick soul; and then returns To Him who made the purest light of Heaven. R. A. Nicholson 'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972 THE TRUE SUFI What makes the Sufi? Purity of heart; Not the patched mantle and the lust perverse Of those vile earth-bound men who steal his name. He in all dregs discerns the essence pure: In hardship ease, in tribulation joy. The phantom sentries, who with batons drawn Guard Beauty's place-gate and curtained bower, Give way before him, unafraid he passes, And showing the King's arrow, enters in. R. A. Nicholson 'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972

 THE UNSEEN POWER We are the flute, our music is all Thine; We are the mountains echoing only Thee; And movest to defeat or victory; Lions emblazoned high on flags unfurledThey wind invisible sweeps us through the world. R. A. Nicholson 'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972 THE PROGRESS OF MAN First he appeared in the realm inanimate; Thence came into the world of plants and lived The plant-life many a year, nor called to mind What he had been; then took the onward way To animal existence, and once more Remembers naught of what life vegetive, Save when he feels himself moved with desire Towards it in the season of sweet flowers, As babes that seek the breast and know not why. Again the wise Creator whom thou knowest Uplifted him from animality To Man's estate; and so from realm to realm Advancing, he became intelligent, Cunning and keen of wit, as he is now. No memory of his past abides with him, And from his present soul he shall be changes. Though he is fallen asleep, God will not leave him In this forgetfulness. Awakened, he Will laugh to think what troublous dreams he had.

And wonder how his happy state of being He could forget, and not perceive that all Those pains and sorrows were the effect of sleep And guile and vain illusion. So this world Seems lasting, though 'tis but the sleepers' dream; Who, when the appointed Day shall dawn, escapes From dark imaginings that haunted him, And turns with laughter on his phantom griefs When he beholds his everlasting home. R. A. Nicholson 'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972 REALITY AND APPEARANCE 'Tis light makes colour visible: at night Red, greene, and russet vanish from thy sight. So to thee light by darness is made known: Since God hat none, He, seeing all, denies Himself eternally to mortal eyes. From the dark jungle as a tiger bright, Form from the viewless Spirit leaps to ligth. R. A. Nicholson 'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972

 DESCENT I made a far journey Earth's fair cities to view, but like to love's city City none I knew At the first I knew not That city's worth, And turned in my folly A wanderer on earth. From so sweet a country I must needs pass, And like to cattle Grazed on every grass. As Moses' people I would liefer eat Garlic, than manna And celestial meat. What voice in this world to my ear has come Save the voice of love Was a tapped drum. Yet for that drum-tap From the world of All Into this perishing Land I did fall. That world a lone spirit Inhabiting. Like a snake I crept Without foot or wing. The wine that was laughter And grace to sip Like a rose I tasted Without throat or lip.

'Spirit, go a journey,' Love's voice said: 'Lo, a home of travail I have made.' Much, much I cried: 'I will not go'; Yea, and rent my raiment And made great woe. Even as now I shrink To be gone from here, Even so thence To part I did fear. 'Spirit, go thy way,' Love called again, 'And I shall be ever nigh thee As they neck's vein.' Much did love enchant me And made much guile; Love's guile and enchantment Capture me the while. In ignorance and folly When my wings I spread, From palace unto prison I was swiftly sped. Now I would tell How thither thou mayst come; But ah, my pen is broke And I am dumb. A..J. Arberry 'Persian Poems', an Anthology of verse translations edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman's Library, 1972

 I am part of the load Not rightly balanced I drop off in the grass, like the old Cave-sleepers, to browse wherever I fall. For hundreds of thousands of years I have been dust-grains floating and flying in the will of the air, often forgetting ever being in that state, but in sleep I migrate back. I spring loose from the four-branched, time -and-space cross, this waiting room. I walk into a huge pasture I nurse the milk of millennia Everyone does this in different ways. Knowing that conscious decisions and personal memory are much too small a place to live, every human being streams at night into the loving nowhere, or during the day, in some absorbing work. (Mathnawi, VI 216-227) Rumi, 'We Are Three'