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

Be Cautious...

*Al-Baqarah (255)

Allah. There is no god but He,-the Living, the Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede in His presence except as He permitteth? He knoweth what (appeareth to His creatures as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall they compass aught of His knowledge except as He willeth. His Throne doth extend over the heavens and the earth, and He feeleth no fatigue in guarding and preserving them for He is the Most High, the Supreme (in glory). 

The greed of hunting makes one oblivious to being a prey:

the hunter tries to win hearts,

though he has lost his own.

Don't be inferior to a bird in your seeking:

for even a sparrow sees what is before and behind.*

When the bird approaches the bait,

at that moment it turns its head several times

to the rear and the front,

as if to say,

"Is there a hunter somewhere near?

Should I be careful?

Should I touch this food?"

Mathnawi V: 752-755

Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski

"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"

Threshold Books, 1996

Tell no one what you've seen...

A Light Within His Light

I circled awhile with each of the intelligences,

the nine fathers that control the levels

of spirit-growth.

 I revolved

for years with the stars through

each astrological sign.

I disappeared into the kingdom of nearness.

I saw what I have seen, receiving nourishment

as a child lives in the womb.

Personalities are born once,

a mystic many times.

Wearing the body-robe, I've been busy

in the market, weighing and arguing prices.

Sometimes I have torn the robe off

with my own hands and thrown it away.

I've spent long nights in monasteries,

and I have slept with those who claim to believe

nothing on the porches of pagodas,

just traveling through.

When someone feels jealous, I am inside

the hurt and the need to possess.

When anyone is sick, I feel

feverish and dizzy.

I am cloud and rain being released,

and then the meadow as it soaks it in.

I wash the rains of mortality

from the cloth around a dervish.

I am the rose of eternity, not made of

water or fire or the wandering wind,

or even earth. I pay with those.

I am not Shams of Tabriz,

but a light within his light.

If you see me, be careful.

Tell no one what you've seen.

Ghazal (Ode) 331, 

Version by Coleman Barks,

 "Say I Am You" 

Maypop, 1994

The One Who Sees

today like everyday
I'm in no sober mood
don't open the door
to my thoughts
begin the music instead
for the one who sees
only the beloved's face
there are a hundred
ways to pray
to prostrate
or to be humbled
to the ground

Translation by Nader Khalili
Rumi, Dancing the Flame, Cal-Earth Press, 2001 

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Version by Coleman Barks
Open Secret, Threshold Books, 1984