What We Want

(Credit : Panhala)

What we want
is never simple.
We move among the things
we thought we wanted:
a face, a room, an open book
and these things bear our names--
now they want us.
But what we want appears
in dreams, wearing disguises.
We fall past,
holding out our arms
and in the morning
our arms ache.
We don't remember the dream,
but the dream remembers us.
It is there all day
as an animal is there
under the table,
as the stars are there
even in full sun.

 

~ Linda Pastan ~

Champions in NonExistence!

(Credit : Ektoplazm)

Once again we have left our heart, intellect, and
spirit behind - the Friend has come into the midst and we
have disappeared.
 

We have turned back from annihilation and become
woven into subsistence; we have found the Traceless and
thrown away all traces.
 

Stirring up dust from the ocean and smoke from
the nine spheres, we have discarded Time, the earth, and
the heavens.
 

Beware, the drunkards have come! Clear the way! - no
I said that wrong, for we have been delivered from the way and
the travelers.
 

The spirit's fire has lifted its head from the body's
earth; the heart began to shout, and like a shout, we rose up.
 

Let us speak less, for if we speak, few understand. 

 

Pour more wine, for we have entered the ranks of the self-deniers!
Existence is for women - the work of men is nonexistence.
 

Thanks be to God, for we have risen as champions in nonexistence!

  Ghazal (Ode) 1601
Translation by Professor William C. Chittick*
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

Spinning With Your Love

I am filled with splendor,
spinning with your love.

It looks like I’m spinning around you,
but no – I’m spinning around myself!

Version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva
A Garden Beyond Paradise
Bantam Books, 1992

Without You, how can I...?

(Credit : Nine Ravens)

There is no wine without You,
no use for the rosary without Your hand.
From afar You order me to dance
bu unless You set the stage and
open the curtain, my Beloved,
how can I dance?

  Translation by Azima Melita Kolin  and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1999

Bila Rumi Menari (M. Nasir)

Kita menari bukan sebarang tarian
Asalnya dari tanah orang-orang pilihan 

Bila terdengar masnawi ciptaan maulana
Ku bunuh nafsu lebur rantainya dari badan

Hingga hilang bangga diri
Berani hidup berani mati 

Bagai musafir bertemu janji
Ini Darwis sudah gila berahi

Kita tak rindu pada siasah dunia
Perangkapnya membuat manusia hampa
Untuk bertemu impian bukan percuma
Mengorbankan yang tersangat kita cinta

Bagai Yunus dimakan paus
Ibrahim tak makan api 

Bertemu kekasih di malam kudus
Luka di badan tak terasa lagi
Pukullah rebana jantungku bersyairlah maulana
Aku mabuk hakiki mendengar suaramu 

Sayang... pada mereka yang tak mengerti
Sayang... pada hati tertutup mati
Bagai sangkar tanpa penghuni
Burung berharga terlepas lari

Rindu (ya maulana)
Kembali bertemu (ya maulana)
Hatiku merindukan pemiliknya (ya maulana) 

Rindu (ya maulana)
Kembali bersatu (ya maulana)
Kembali bersatu dengan yang dikasihi

Rindu (ya maulana)
Kembali bertemu (ya maulana)
Hatiku merindukan pemiliknya (ya maulana) 

Rindu (ya maulana)
Kembali bersatu (ya maulana)
Kembali bersatu dengan kekasih

I only know what I've experienced

Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo.
You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate.

There are wheatfields and mountain passes,
and orchards in bloom.

At night there are millions of galaxies,
and in sunlight the beauty of friends
dancing at a wedding."

You ask the embryo why he, or she,
stays cooped up in the dark with eyes closed.

Listen to the answer:

"There is no 'other world.'
I only know what I've experienced.
You must be hallucinating."

Mathnawi III
Version by Coleman Barks
"We Are Three"
Maypop, 1987

The one who loves what God has made has no faith...

You are the real object

 Noah said, "I don't look at anyone but You;
even if I do, it's only a pretext,
for You are the real object of my glance.
I am in love with Your making—
both in the moment of thankfulness,
and when patience is required.
How should I be in love, like the unfaithful,
with that which You have made?"
The one who loves God's making is glorious;
the one who loves what God has made has no faith.

  Mathnawi III: 1359-1361
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996

Let's go home

Credit : Australian Geographic http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/wallpaper-barking-owl.htm)

A House for the Naked

It's late and it's raining my friends;
let's go home. Let's leave these ruins
we've haunted like owls.
Even though these blonde beauties beckon,
let's go home. All the reasons offered
by the sensible, dull, and sorrowful
can't darken our hearts now;
nor can all this phantom love play,
this imaginary paradise hold us back.
Some see the grain but not the harvest.
Don't ask too many "how's" or "why's."
Let beasts graze.
Come home to the real celebration and music.
Shams has built a house for the naked and the pure.

  Version by Kabir Helminski
"Love is a Stranger"
Threshold Books, 1993

Credit : OWLING http://www.owling.com/e-scr3.htm

Let's Go Home

Late and starting to rain, it's time to go home.
We've wandered long enough in empty buildings.
I know it's tempting to stay and meet those new people.
I know it's even more sensible
to spend the night here with them,
but I want to be home.

We've seen enough beautiful places with signs on them
saying "This Is God's House".
That's seeing the grain like the ants do,
without the work of harvesting.
Let's leave grazing to cows and go
where we know what everyone really intends,
where we can walk around without clothes on.

  Version by Coleman Barks
"Open Secret"
Threshold Books, 1984