Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Two Wings

  سورة النبأ  Sura An-Naba (78) Verse 8


وَخَلَقْنَاكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا



(credit image - HERE)

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.

Mathnawi II: 1552; 1554
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Glow of Humble Longing

(image credit : HERE)


Everyone who delights in some act of devotion
can't bear to miss it,
even for a short while.
That disappointment and grief
are as a hundred prayers:
what is ritual prayer compared
with the glow of humble longing?


Mathnawi II: 2769-2770
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight", Threshold Books, 1994

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Today in Konya


(Shrine of Jalaluddin Rumi, Konya, Turkey)


Today...
A couple of hours ago.....
HERE..., in Konya




When I die...

When I die
when my coffin
is being taken out
you must never think
i am missing this world

don't shed any tears
don't lament or
feel sorry
i'm not falling
into a monster's abyss

when you see
my corpse is being carried
don't cry for my leaving
i'm not leaving
i'm arriving at eternal love

when you leave me
in the grave
don't say goodbye
remember a grave is
only a curtain
for the paradise behind

you'll only see me
descending into a grave
now watch me rise
how can there be an end
when the sun sets or
the moon goes down

it looks like the end
it seems like a sunset
but in reality it is a dawn
when the grave locks you up
that is when your soul is freed

have you ever seen
a seed fallen to earth
not rise with a new life
why should you doubt the rise
of a seed named human

have you ever seen
a bucket lowered into a well
coming back empty
why lament for a soul
when it can come back
like Joseph from the well

when for the last time
you close your mouth
your words and soul
will belong to the world of
no place no time

~RUMI, ghazal number 911, 
translated by Nader Khalili.
(Mausoleum of Rumi, Konya, Turkey)

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

The One Who Keeps Her Heart Awake


(image credit - click here)

There is many a one whose eye is awake
but whose heart is asleep.
What, in truth, should be seen
by the eyes of creatures of water and clay?
The one who keeps her heart awake,
though the eyes of her head may sleep,
her heart will open a hundred eyes.


Mathnawi lII:1222-1223
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
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