The Night of Union
Ghazal 1092
This is the Night of Union,
when the stars scatter their rice over us.
The sky is excited!
Venus cannot stop singing the little songs she's making up,
like a bird in the first warm Spring weather.
The North star can't quit looking over at Leo.
Pisces is stirring milky dust from the Ocean floor.
Jupiter rides his horse over to Saturn,
"Old Man, jump up behind me! The juice is coming back!
Think of something happy to shout as we go."
Mars washes his bloody sword, and puts it up, and begins building things.
The Aquarian water jar fills, and the Virgin pours it generously
The Pleiades and Libra and Aries
have no trembling in them anymore.
Scorpio walks out looking for a lover,
and so does Sagittarius!
This is not crooked walking, like the Crab.
This is the Holiday we've been waiting for.
It's finally time to sacrifice Taurus
and learn how the sky is a lens to look through.
Listen to What's Inside
anything I say.
Shams will appear at dawn,
and then even this night will change
from its Beloved Darkness
to a Day beyond any ordinary,
sweet daylight.
Version by Coleman Barks
from a translation by A.J. Arberry
"Like This"
Maypop, 1990
Tonight is a night of union for the stars and of scattering,
scattering, since a bride is coming from the skies,
consisting of a full moon.
Venus cannot contain herself for charming melodies,
like the nightingale which becomes intoxicated with the rose in spring-time.
See how the polestar is ogling Leo;
behold what dust Pisces is stirring up from the deep!
Jupiter has galloped his steed against ancient Saturn, saying
"Take back your youth and go, bring good tidings!"
Mars' hand, which was full of blood from the handle of his sword,
has become as life-giving as the sun, the exalted in works.
Since Aquarius has come full of that water of life,
the dry cluster of Virgo is raining pearls from him.
The Pleiades (nut) full of goodness fears not Libra and being broken;
how should Aries flee away in fright from its mother?
When from the moon the arrow of a glance struck the heart of Sagittarius,
he took to night-faring in passion for her, like Scorpio.
On such a festival, go, sacrifice Taurus,
else you are crooked of gait in the mud like Cancer.
This sky is the astrolabe, and the reality is Love;
whatever we say of this, attend to the meaning.
Shamsi-Tabriz, on that dawn when you shine, the dark night
is transformed to bright day by your moonlike face.
Translation by A.J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 1"
The University of Chicago Press, 1968
