You are more beautiful than you think...

I am that

The marvelous sound

That comes from the sky – I am That.

The sweet fragrance

That comes from the garden – I am That.

The great beauty

That comes from the heart and soul

Until I leave . . . Wait!

I can’t leave – I am That.

Version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva

A Garden Beyond Paradise

Bantam Books, 1992

I am the sharer of your secrets

how very close

is your soul with mine

i know for sure

everything you think

goes through my mind

i am with you

now and doomsday

not like a host

caring for you

at a feast alone

with you i am happy

all the times

the time i offer my life

or the time

you gift me your love

offering my life

is a profitable venture

each life i give

you pay in turn

a hundred lives again

in this house

there are a thousand

dead and still souls

making you stay

as this will be yours

a handful of earth

cries aloud

i used to be hair or

i used to be bones

and just the moment

when you are all confused

leaps forth a voice

hold me close

i'm love and

i'm always yours 

Translation by Nader Khalili

"Rumi -- Fountain of Fire"

Cal-Earth Press, 1994 

How close your soul is to my soul! For whatever thing you are

thinking, I know.

I have a token even closer than this; come close, and behold

my token.

In dervish guise you come into the midst; do not jest and say,

"I am in the midst."

I am like the column amidst your house; I am like a water-

spout hanging down from your roof.

I am a sharer of your secrets on the day of mustering and 

resurrection, I am not a passing host like worldly friends.

In your banquet I go round like the wine, in time of your

battle I go before you like a lance.

If like lightning I make a trade of dying, like the lightning of

your beauty I am without a tongue.

Always I am joyful; it makes no difference whether I yield my

soul, or seize a soul.

If I give you my soul, it will be good trade, for in exchange for

a soul you will give me a hundred worlds.

In this house thousands and more are dead; there you are

seated saying, "Behold my household!"

A handful of dust says, "I was once a tress"; another says, "I am

a bone."

You become bewildered; then suddenly Love comes saying, "I 

will deliver you this very instant from yourself."

Silence, Khusrau, speak no more of Shirin; my mouth is 

burning with sweetness.*

Translation by A.J. Arberry

"Mystical Poems of Rumi - 1"

The University of Chicago Press, 1968

* A play on "Shirin" and "shirini" (sweetness).

Spirit and awareness

What is soul? Soul is conscious of good and evil,

rejoicing over kindness, weeping over injury.

Since consciousness is the inmost nature and essence of the soul,

the more aware you are the more spiritual you are.

Awareness is the effect of the spirit:

anyone who has this in abundance

is a man or woman of God.

Mathnawi VI: 148-150

Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski

"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"

Threshold Books, 1996

Soul And The Old Woman

What is the soul?

Consciousness.

The more awareness, the deeper the soul,

 and when

such essence overflows, you feel a sacredness around.

It’s so simple to tell one who puts on a robe and 

pretends to be a dervish from the real thing.

 We know the taste of pure water. 

Words can sound like a poem but not have any juice,

no flavor to relish.

How long do you look at pictures on a bathhouse wall?

Soul is what draws you away from those pictures to talk with the old woman

who sits outside by the door in the sun. 

She’s half blind, but she has what soul loves to flow into. 

She’s kind; she weeps.

She makes quick personal decisions, and laughs so easily.

Mathnawi: VI: 148-50

Version by Coleman Barks

"The Soul of Rumi"

HarperSanFrancisco, 2001