I believe in all that..

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has
dared to wish for

may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with
children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing to you
as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

(Rilke’s Book of Hours:Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)

If you have the courage to look in its face

love is

a mirror

you see nothing

but your reflection

you see nothing

but your real face

Translation by Nader Khalili

Rumi, Dancing the Flame

Cal-Earth Press, 2001

With love you cannot bargain

there, the choice is not yours.

Love is a mirror, it reflects

only your essence,

if you have the courage

to look in its face.

Translation by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi

Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1999

Can't You See the Mighty Warrior?

How often you ask,
What is my path?
What is my cure?
He has made you a seeker of Unity,
isn't that enough?

All your sorrow exists for one reason -
that you may end sorrow forever.
The desire to know your own soul
will end all other desires.

The smell of bread has reached you -
if that aroma fills you with delight
what need is there for bread?

If you have fallen in love,
that love is proof enough;
If you have not fallen in love,
what good is all your proof?

Can't you see? -
If you are not the King
what meaning is there
in a kingly entourage?

If the beautiful one is not inside you
what is that light
hidden under your cloak?

From a distance you tremble with fear -
Can't you see the mighty warrior
standing ready in your heart?

The fire of his eyes
has burned away every veil,
So why do you remain behind the curtain,
scared of what you cannot see? -

Open your eyes! 

The Beloved is staring you right in the face!

If a master has not placed
His light in your heart,
What joy can you find in this world? -
every flower is lifeless,
and sweet wine has no taste.


Ode 406
Version by Jonathan Star
"A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi"
Bantam Books, 1992

For Lovers, Advice Is Never Useful...

Each Note

Advice doesn't help lovers!

They're not the kind of mountain stream

you can build a dam across.

An intellectual doesn't know

what the drunk is feeling!

Don't try to figure

what those lost inside love

will do next!

Someone in charge would give up all his power,

if he caught one whiff of the wine-musk

from the room where the lovers

are doing who-knows-what!

One of them tries to dig a hole through a mountain.

One flees from academic honors.

One laughs at famous mustaches!

Life freezes if it doesn't get a taste

of this almond cake.

The stars come up spinning

every night, bewildered in love.

They'd grow tired

with that revolving, if they weren't.

They'd say,

"How long do we have to do this!"

God picks up the reed-flute world and blows.

Each note is a need coming through one of us,

a passion, a longing-pain.

Remember the lips

where the wind-breath originated,

and let your note be clear.

Don't try to end it.

Be your note.

I'll show you how it's enough.

Go up on the roof at night

in this city of the soul.

Let everyone climb on their roofs

and sing their notes!

Sing loud!

Version by Coleman Barks

"The Essential Rumi"

HarperSanFrancisco, 1995