I have been tricked by flying too close

I have been tricked by flying too close

to what I thought I loved.

Now the candleflame is out,

the wine spilled

,and the lovers have withdrawn

somewhere beyond my squinting.

The amount I thought I'd won,

I've lost.

My prayers becomes bitter

and all about blindness.

How wonderful it was to be for a while

with those who surrender.

Others only turn their faces on way,

then another, like pigeon in flight.

I have known pigeons who fly in a nowhere,

and birds that eat grainlessness,

and tailor who sew beautiful clothes

by tearing them to pieces.

intellectual & lover!

The intellectual is always showing off,
the lover is always getting lost.
The intellectual runs away.
afraid of drowning;
the whole business of love
is to drown in the sea.
Intellectuals plan their repose;
lovers are ashamed to rest.
The lover is always alone.
even surrounded by people;
like water and oil, he remains apart.
The man who goes to the trouble
of giving advice to a lover
get nothing. He's mocked by passion.
Love is like musk. It attracts attention.
Love is a tree, and the lovers are its shade.

Reason says, "I will beguile him with the tongue;

"Love says, "Be silent. I will beguile him with the soul."

The soul says to the heart, "Go, do not laugh at meand yourself.

What is there that is not his,

that I may beguile him thereby?

"He is not sorrowful and anxious and seeking oblivionthat

I may beguile him with wine and a heavy measure.

The arrow of his glance needs not a bow

that I should beguile the shaft of his gaze with a bow.

He is not prisoner of the world,

fettered to this world of earth,

that I should beguile him with gold of the kingdom of the world.

He is an angel, though in form he is a man;

he is notlustful that I should beguile him with women

.Angels start away from the house wherein this formis,

so how should I beguile him with such a form and likeness?

He does not take a flock of horses,

since he flies on wings;his food is light,

so how should I beguile him with bread?

He is not a merchant and trafficker in the market of the world

that I should beguile him with enchantment of gain and loss.

He is not veiled that I should make myself out sick andutter sighs,

to beguile him with lamentation.

I will bind my head and bow my head,

for I have got outof hand;

I will not beguile his compassion with sickness or fluttering.

Hair by hair he sees my crookedness and feigning;

what'shidden from him

that I should beguile him with anything hidden.

He is not a seeker of fame,

a prince addicted to poets,

that I should beguile him with verses and lyrics and flowing poetry.

The glory of the unseen form is too great for me

to beguile it with blessing or Paradise.Shams-e Tabriz,

who is his chosen and beloved - perchance

I will beguile him with this same pole of the age.

a new rule

It is the rule with drunkards

to fall upon each other,

to quarrel, become violent,

and make a scene.

The lover is even worse than a drunkard.

I will tell you what love is:

to enter a mine of gold

.And what is that gold?
The lover is a king above all kings,

unafraid of death,

not at all interested in a golden crown.

The dervish has a pearl

concealed under his patched cloak.

Why should he go begging door to door?
Last night that moon came along,

drunk, dropping clothes in the street.

"Get up," I told my heart,

"Give the soul a glass of wine.

The moment has come

to join the nightingale in the garden,

to taste sugar with the soul-parrot."
I have fallen, with my heart shattered

-where else but on your path?

And Ibroke your bowl,

drunk, my idol, so drunk,

don't let me be harmed,

take my hand.
A new rule, a new law has been born:

break all the glasses

and fall toward the glassblower.

rubaeya

I sought a soul in the sea

And found a coral there;

Beneath the foam for meAn ocean

was all laid bare.

Into my heart's night

Along a narrow way

I groped; and lo! the light

,An infinite land of day.

the house of your beloved,

"I am only the house of your beloved,
not the beloved herself:
true love is for the treasure,
not for the coffer that contains it."
The real beloved is that one who is unique,
who is your beginning and your end.
When you find that one,
you'll no longer expect anything else:
that is both the manifest and the mystery.
That one is the lord of states of feeling,
dependent on none;
month and year are slaves to that moon.
When he bids the "state,"
it does His bidding;
when that one wills, bodies become spirit.

life & death

look at love

how it tangles

with the one fallen in love
look at spirit

how it fuses with earth

giving it new life
why are you so busy

with this or that or good or bad

pay attention to how things blend
why talk about all

the known and the unknown

see how the unknown merges into the known
why think seperately

of this life and the next

when one is born from the last
look at your heart and tongue

one feels but deaf and dumb

the other speaks in words and signs
look at water and fire

earth and wind

enemies and friends all at once
the wolf and the lamb

the lion and the deer

far away yet together
look at the unity of this

spring and winter

manifested in the equinox
you too must mingle my friends

since the earth and the sky

are mingled just for you and me
be like sugarcanes weet yet silent

don't get mixed up with bitter words
my beloved grows

right out of my own heart

how much more union can there be

Love!

For lovers, the only lecturer is the beauty of the Beloved;

their only book and lecture and lesson is the Face.

They are silent outwardly,but their penetrating remembrance

rises to the high throne of their Friend.

Their only lesson is enthusiasm,

whirling, and trembling,not the fine points of jurisprudence.

[III, 3847-9]

That which God said to the rose,

and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty,

He said to my heart,and made it a hundred times more beautiful.

[III, 4129]

Many have been led astray by the Qur'an:

by clinging to that rope many have fallen into the well.

There is no fault in the rope,

O perverse man,for it was you who had no desire to reach the top.

[III, 4210-11]

THE SPIRIT OF THE SAINTS

There is a Water that flows down from Heaven

To cleanse the world of sin by grace Divine.

At last, its whole stock spent,

its virtue gone.Dark with pollution not its own,

it speeds Back to the Fountain of all purities;

Whence, freshly bathed, earthward it sweeps again,

Trailing a robe of glory bright and pure.
This Water is the Spirit of the Saints,

Which ever sheds, until itself is beggared,

God's balm on the sick soul;

and then returns To Him

who made the purest light of Heaven.

ever drunk with love

The Lover is ever drunk with love;

He is free, he is mad,

He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,

we worry about every little thing,

But once we get drunk on that love,

Whatever will be, will be.

DESCENT

I made a far journey

Earth's fair cities to view,

but like to love's city

City none I knew
At the first I knew not

That city's worth,

And turned in my folly

A wanderer on earth.
From so sweet a country

I must needs pass,

And like to cattle

Grazed on every grass.
As Moses' people

I would liefer eat

Garlic, than manna

And celestial meat.
What voice in this world

to my ear has come

Save the voice of love

Was a tapped drum.
Yet for that drum-tap

From the world of All

Into this perishing Land I did fall.
That world a lone spirit

Inhabiting.

Like a snake I crept Without foot or wing.
The wine that was laughter

And grace to sip

Like a rose I tasted

Without throat or lip.
'Spirit, go a journey,

'Love's voice said:

'Lo, a home of travail

I have made.'
Much, much I cried:'

I will not go';Yea, and rent my raiment

And made great woe.
Even as now I shrink

To be gone from here,

Even so thence

To part I did fear.
'Spirit, go thy way,

'Love called again,'

And I shall be ever nigh thee

As they neck's vein.'
Much did love enchant me

And made much guile;

Love's guile and enchantment

Capture me the while.
In ignorance and folly

When my wings I spread,

From palace unto prison

I was swiftly sped.
Now I would tell

How thither thou mayst come;

But ah, my pen is broke

And I am dumb.

A Star Without a Name

When a baby is taken from the wet nurse,
it easily forgets her
and starts eating solid food.

Seeds feed awhile on ground,
then lift up into the sun.

So you should taste the filtered light
and work your way toward wisdom
with no personal covering.

That's how you came here, like a star
without a name. Move across the night sky
with those anonymous lights.

this is love!

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky,
to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment.
First, to let go of live.
In the end, to take a step without feet;
to regard this world as invisible,
and to disregard what appears to be the self.

Heart, I said, what a gift it has been
to enter this circle of lovers,
to see beyond seeing itself,
to reach and feel within the soul

When the rose is gone

When the rose is gone and the garden faded

you will no longer hear the nightingale's song.

The Beloved is all; the lover just a veil.

The Beloved is living; the lover a dead thing.

If love withholds its strengthening care

,the lover is left like a bird without care,

the lover is left like a bird without wings.

How will I be awake and aware

if the light of the Beloved is absent?

Love wills that this Word be brought forth.

enough words

Enough Words
How does a part of the world leave the world?

How can wetness leave water?
Don't try to put out a fire

by throwing on more fire!

Don't wash a wound with blood!
No matter how fast you run,

your shadow more than keeps up.

Sometimes, it's in front!
Only full, overhead sun dimishes your shadow.
But that shadow has been serving you!

What hurts you, blesses you.

Darkness is your candle.

Your boundaries are your quest.
I can explain this, but it would break

the glass cover on your heart,and there's no fixing that.
You must have shadow and light source both.

Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.
When from that tree,

feathers and wings sprout on you,

be quieter than a dove.

Don't open your mouth for even a cooooooo.
When a frog slips into the water, the snake cannot get it.

Then the frog climbs back out and croaks,

and the snake moves toward him again.
Even if the frog learned to hiss,

still the snake would hear through the hiss

the information he needed,

the frog voice underneath.
But if the frog could be completely silent,

then the snake would go back to sleeping,

and the frog could reach the barley.

The soul lives there in the silent breath.
And that grain of barley is such that,

when you put it in the ground,it grows.
Are these enough words,

or shall I squeeze more juice from this?

Who am I, my friend?

sun!

O SUN, fill our house once more with light!

Make happy all your friends and blind your foes!

Rise from behind the hill,

transform the stones To rubies and the sour grapes to wine!

O Sun, make our vineyard fresh again,

And fill the steppes with houris and green cloaks!

Physician of the lovers, heaven's lamp!

Rescues the lovers! Help the suffering!

Show but your face - the world is filled with light!

But if you cover it, it's the darkest night!

come!

I've had enough of sleepless nights,

of my unspoke grief,

of my tired wisdom.

Come my treasure,

my breath of life

come and dress my wounds

and be my cure.

Enough of words.

Come to me without a sound

only you

only you

i choose among the entire world
is it fair of you

letting me be unhappy
my heart is a pen in your hand
it is all up to you to write me happy or sad
i see only what you reveal and live as you say
all my feelings have the color you desire to paint
from the beginningt o the end no one but you
please make my future better than the past
when you hide

i change to a Godless person
and when you appear i find my faith
don’t expect to find any more in me than what you give
don’t search for hidden pockets

because i ’ve shown you that all i have is all you gave.

Rumi
translated by Nader Khalili

passion!

Passion makes the old medicine new:
Passion lops off the bough of weariness.
Passion is the elixir that renews:
how can there be weariness
when passion is present?
Oh, don't sigh heavily from fatigue:
seek passion, seek passion, seek passion!

Choosing sweetness or vinegar

i don’t need a companion who is nasty sad and sour
the one who is like a grave dark depressing and bitter
a sweetheart is a mirror a friend a delicious cake

it isn’t worth spending an hour with anyone else
a companion who is in love only with the self

has five distinct characters
stone hearted

unsure of every step

lazy and disinterested

keeping a poisonous face
the more this companion waits around

the more bitter everything will get just like a vinegar

getting more sour with time
enough is said about sour and bitter faces

a heart filled with desire for sweetness and tender souls

must not waste itself with unsavory matters

At the hour of the morning-drink

At the hour of the morning-drink a beloved said to her lover

by way of trial, "O such-and-such son of such-and-such,I wonder, do you love me or yourself more? Tell the truth,O man of sorrows.

"He replied, "I have become so naughted in thee that I am

full of thee from head to foot.

Of my existence there is nothing (left) in me but the name:

in my being there is naught but thee, O thou whose wishes are gratified.

By that means I have become thus naughted, like vinegar, in

thee (who are) an ocean of honey.

"As the stone that is entirely turned into pure ruby: it is filled with the qualities of the sun.

That stony nature does not remain in it:

back and front, it is filled with sunniness.Afterwards, if it love itself, that (self-love) is love of the sun,

O youth;And if it love the sun with (all) its soul, ‘tis undoubtedly love of itself.

Whether the pure ruby loves itself or whether it loves the sun,There is really no difference in these two loves:

both sides(aspects) are naught but the radiance of the sunrise.

Until it (the stone) has become a ruby, it is an enemy to itself,because it is not a single "I"

: two "I’s" are there;For the stone is dark and blind to the day (-light): the dark is essentially opposed to light.

(If) it love itself, it is an infidel, because it offers intenseresistance to the supreme Sun.

Therefore ‘tis not fitting that the stone should say "I," (for)it is wholly darkness and in (the state of) death

.A Pharaoh said, "I am God" and was laid low; a Mansur(Hallaj) said, "I am God" and was saved.The former "I" is followed by God’s curse and the latter"I" by God’s mercy,

O loving man;For that one (Pharaoh) was a black stone, this one (Hallaj) acornelian; that one was an enemy to the Light, and this onepassionately enamoured (of it)

.This "I," O presumptuous meddler, was "He" (God) in the inmostconsciousness, through

oneness with the Light, not through (belief in) the doctrine of incarnation.

Strive that thy stony nature may be diminished, so that thystone may become resplendent with the qualities of the ruby.

Show fortitude in (enduring) self-mortification and affliction;continually behold everlasting life in dying to self.(Then) thy stoniness will become less at every moment,

the nature of the ruby will be strengthened in thee.

The qualities of (self-) existence will depart from thy body,the qualities of intoxication (ecstasy) will increase in thy head (thy spiritual centre).

Become entirely hearing, like an ear, in order that thou maystgain an ear-ring of ruby

remember me

I will be with you in the grave

on the night you leave

behind your shop and your family.

When you hear my soft voice echoing in your tomb,

you will realize that you were never hidden from my eyes.

I am the pure awareness within your heart,

with you during joy and celebration,

suffering and despair.
On that strange and fateful night

you will hear a familar voice --

you'll be rescued from the fangs of snakes

and the searing sting of scorpions.

The euphoria of love will sweep over your grave;

it will bring wine and friends, candles and food.
When the light of realization dawns,

shouting and upheaval will rise up from the graves!

The dust of ages will be stirred by the cities of ecstasy,

by the banging of drums, by the clamor of revolt!
Dead bodies will tear off their shrouds

and stuff their ears in fright--

What use are the senses and the ears before the blast of that Trumpet?
Look and you will see my form

whether you are looking at yourself or toward that noise and confusion.
Don't be blurry-eyed,

See me clearly-

See my beauty without the old eyes of delusion.
Beware! Beware!

Don't mistake me for this human form.

The soul is not obscured by forms.

Even if it were wrapped in a hundred folds

of felt the rays of the soul's light would still shine through.
Beat the drum,Follow the minstrels of the city.

It's a day of renewal

when every young manwalks boldly on the path of love.
Had everyone sought God

Instead of crumbs and copper coins

T'hey would not be sitting

on the edge of the moatin darkness and regret.
What kind of gossip-house

have you opened in our city?

Close your lipsand shine on the world like loving sunlight.
Shine like the Sun of Tabriz

rising in the East.

Shine like the star of victory.

Shine like the whole universe is yours

The Ceremony

Whoever has heard of me,

let him prepare to come and see me;

whoever desires me,

let him search for me.

He will find me -

then let him choose none other than I.

Shamsuddin of Tabrizi

come!

Come, Come

whoever you are,

Wanderer, worshipper,

lover of leaving,

It doesn't matter!

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Come, even if you have broken your vow

a thousand times.

Come, yet again,

come, come.

love & reputation

"Love and reputation, brother,are not in harmony.

don’t stand at the door of reputation, if you are a lover."

mevlana rumi

Love has nothing to do

Love has nothing to do with
the five senses and the six directions:
its goal is only to experience
the attraction exerted by the Beloved.
Afterwards, perhaps, permission
will come from God:
the secrets that ought to be told will be told
with an eloquence nearer to the understanding
that these subtle confusing allusions.
The secret is partner with none
but the knower of the secret:
in the skeptic's ear
the secret is no secret at all.

All through eternity..

All through eternity
Beauty unveils His exquisite form
in the solitude of nothingness;
He holds a mirror to His Face
and beholds His own beauty.
he is the knower and the known,
the seer and the seen;
No eye but His own
has ever looked upon this Universe.

His every quality finds an expression:
Eternity becomes the verdant field of Time and Space;
Love, the life-giving garden of this world.
Every branch and leaf and fruit
Reveals an aspect of His perfection-
They cypress give hint of His majesty,
The rose gives tidings of His beauty.

Whenever Beauty looks,
Love is also there;
Whenever beauty shows a rosy cheek
Love lights Her fire from that flame.
When beauty dwells in the dark folds of night
Love comes and finds a heart
entangled in tresses.
Beauty and Love are as body and soul.
Beauty is the mine, Love is the diamond.

They have together
since the beginning of time-
Side by side, step by step.

This is love

This is love: to fly to heaven, every moment to rend a hundred veils;

At first instance, to break away from breath -- first step, to renounce feet;

To disregard this world,

to see only that which you yourself have seen

..I said, "Heart, congratulations on entering the circle of lovers,"

On gazing beyond the range of the eye,

on running into the alley of the breasts.

"Whence came this breath, O heart?

Whence came this throbbing,

O heart?

Bird, speak the tongue of birds: I can heed your cipher!

The heart said, "I was in the factory whilst the home of water and clay was abaking."

I was flying from the workshop whilst the workshop was being created.

"When I could no more resist,

they dragged me; how shall Itell the manner of that dragging?"

oh, beloved!

Oh Beloved,take me.

Liberate my soul.

Fill me with your love

and release me from the two worlds.

If I set my heart on anything but you

let fire burn me from inside.

Oh Beloved,take away what I want.

Take away what I do

.Take away what I need.

Take away everything

that takes me from you.

Ode 2180

From these depths depart towards heaven;

may your soul be happy,journey joyfully.

You have escaped from the city full of fear and trembling;

happily become a resident of the Abode of Security

..If the body’s image has gone,

await the image-maker;

if thebody is utterly ruined,

become all soul.

If your face has become saffron pale through death,

become adweller among tulip beds and Judas trees.

If the doors of repose have been barred to you,

come, departby way of the roof and the ladder.

If you are alone from Friends and companions,

by the help ofGod become a saheb-qeran

( Saheb qeran is a person who is born under a happy conjunction of the planets. [lord of happy circumstance].

If you have been secluded from water and bread,

like breadbecome the food of the souls, and so become!

new rule!!

It is the rule with drunkards to fall upon each other,

to quarrel, become violent, and make a scene.

The lover is even worse than a drunkard.

I will tell you what love is:

to enter a mine of gold.And what is that gold?
The lover is a king above all kings,

unafraid of death, not at all interested in a golden crown.

The dervish has a pearl concealed under his patched cloak.

Why should he go begging door to door?
Last night that moon came along,

drunk, dropping clothes in the street.

"Get up," I told my heart, "Give the soul a glass of wine.

The moment has come to join the nightingale in the garden,

to taste sugar with the soul-parrot."
I have fallen, with my heart shattered

-where else but on your path?

And I broke your bowl, drunk, my idol, so drunk

,don't let me be harmed, take my hand.
A new rule, a new law has been born:

break all the glasses and fall toward the glassblower.

powerless reason!

Reason is powerless in the expression of Love.

Love alone is capable of revealing the truth of Love and being a Lover.

The way of our prophets is the way of Truth.

If you want to live, die in Love; die in Love if you want to remain alive.


I silently moaned so that for a hundred centuries to come,

The world will echo in the sound of my hayhâ

It will turn on the axis of my hayhât*

*hayhâ and hayhât, a corruption of the same term in Persian means 'alas' or 'woe to me!'

(Divan, 562:7)

the vision

During prayer I am accustomed to turn to God like this:

that's the meaning of the words of the Tradition,

'the delight felt in the ritual prayer.

'The window of my soul opens,

and from the purity of the Unseen World,

the Book of God comes to me straight.

The Book, the rain of Divine Grace,

and the Lightare falling into my house through a window

from my real and original source

.The house without a window is Hell:

to make a window is the foundation of true religion.

Don't thrust your axe upon every thicket

come, use your axe to cut open a window

.[III, 2401-5]

Translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski

the journey

Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:

every success depends upon focusing the heart.

Unconcerned with the business of the world,

keep saying with all your soul, "Ku, ku," like the dove.

Consider this well, o you whom worldliness veils,

God has tied "invocation" to "I will answer."

When weakness is cleared from your heart,

your prayer will reach the glorious Lord.

[III, 2302-5]

Even though you're not equipped,

keep searching:equipment isn't necessary on the way to the Lord.

Whoever you see engaged in search,

become her friend and cast your head in front of her,

for choosing to be a neighbor of seekers,

you become one yourself;protected by conquerors,

you will yourself learn to conquer.

If an ant seeks the rank of Solomon,

don't smile contemptuously upon its quest.

Everything you possess of skill, and wealth and handicraft,wasn't it first merely a thought and a quest?

[III, 1445-49]

O God, You who know all that is hidden

You who speak with compassion,

don't hide from us the errors of our wrong pursuits;

nor reveal to us the lack within the good we try to do,

lest we become disgusted and lose the heart to journey on this Path.

[IV, 1348-54]

Translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski

BELOVED LORD PRAYER

Beloved Lord, Almighty God

Aside from Whom there is nothing else

Please help us to love Thee more.

Teach us to realize

that the sole purpose of Love is Beauty.

Bring us to know Thee

as Thou artand to find Thee

in the one place

that is big enough to contain Thee

The heart of Perfect Man

.Amen.

enough words

How does a part of the world leave the world?

How can wetness leave water?
Don't try to put out a fire by throwing on more fire!

Don't wash a wound with blood!
No matter how fast you run,your shadow more than keeps up.

Sometimes, it's in front!
Only full, overhead sundimishes your shadow.
But that shadow has been serving you!

What hurts you, blesses you.

Darkness is your candle.

Your boundaries are your quest.
I can explain this,

but it would break the glass cover on your heart,

and there's no fixing that.
You must have shadow and light source both.

Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.
When from that tree, feathers and wings sprout on you,

be quieter than a dove.

Don't open your mouth for even a cooooooo.
When a frog slips into the water,

the snake cannot get it.

Then the frog climbs back outand croaks,

and the snake moves toward him again.
Even if the frog learned to hiss,

still the snake would hear through the hiss the information he needed,

the frog voice underneath.
But if the frog could be completely silent,

then the snake would go back to sleeping,and the frog could reach the barley.
The soul lives there in the silent breath.
And that grain of barley is such that,when you put it in the ground,it grows.
Are these enough words,

or shall I squeeze more juice from this?

Who am I, my friend

translated by Coleman Barks

Because I cannot sleep

Because I cannot sleep

I make music at night.

I am troubled by the

face e has the color of spring flowers.

I have neither sleep nor patience,

a good reputation nor disgrace.

A thousand robes of wisdom are gone.

all my good manners have moved

a thousand miles away.

The heart and the mind

are left angry with each other.

The stars and the moon

are envious of each other.

because of this alienation

the physical universes

getting tighter and tighter.

the moon says, "How long will I remain

suspended without a sun?

Without Love's jewel inside of me,

let the bazaar of my existence

be destroyed stone by stone.

O Love, You who have been

called by a thousand names,

You who know how to pour the wine

into the chalice of the body,

You who give culture

to a thousand cultures,

You who are faceless b

ut have a thousand faces,

O Love, You who shape the faces

of Turks, Europeans, and Zanzibaris,

give me a glass from Your bottle,

or a handful of bheng from Your Branch.

Remove the cork once more.

The we'll see a thousand chiefs

prostrate themselves,

and a circle of ecstatic troubadours will play.

Then the addict will be breed of craving.

and will be resurrected,

and stand in awe till Judgement Day.

without the capital

The lover's food is the love of the bread;

no bread need be at hand:

no one who is sincere in his love is a slave to existence.

Lovers have nothing to do with with with existence;

lovers have the interest without the capital.

Without wings they fly around the world;

without hands they carry the polo ball off the field.

That dervish who caught the scent of Reality

used to weave basket even though his hand had been cut off.

Lover have pitched their tents in nonexistence:

they are of one quality and one essence, as nonexistence is.

Mathnawi III, 3020-3024

progress!

First he appeared in the realm inanimate;

Thence came into the world of plants and lived

The plant-life many a year, nor called to mind

What he had been; then took the onward way

To animal existence, and once more

Remembers naught of what life vegetive,

Save when he feels himself moved with desire

Towards it in the season of sweet flowers,

As babes that seek the breast and know not why.

Again the wise Creator whom thou knowest

Uplifted him from animalityTo Man's estate;

and so from realm to realmAdvancing,

he became intelligent,Cunning and keen of wit,

as he is now.No memory of his past abides with him,

And from his present soul he shall be changes.

Though he is fallen asleep,

God will not leave him In this forgetfulness.

Awakened,

heWill laugh to think what troublous dreams he had.

And wonder how his happy state of being

He could forget, and not perceive that all Those pains and sorrows

were the effect of sleep

And guile and vain illusion.

So this world Seems lasting,

though 'tis but the sleepers' dream;

Who, when the appointed Day shall dawn,

escapes From dark imaginings that haunted him,

And turns with laughter on his phantom griefs

When he beholds his everlasting home.

the day i've died

The day I've died, my pall is moving on

-But do not think my heart is still on earth!

Don't weep and pity me: "Oh woe, how awful!"

You fall in devil's snare

- woe, that is awful!

Don't cry "Woe, parted!" at my burial

-For me this is the time of joyful meeting!

Don't say "Farewell!" when I'm put in the grave

-A curtain is it for eternal bliss.

You saw "descending"

- now look at the rising!

Is setting dangerous for sun and moon?

To you it looks like setting, but it's rising;

The coffin seems a jail,

yet it means freedom.

Which seed fell in the earth that did not grow there?

Why do you doubt the fate of human seed?

What bucket came not filled from out the cistern?

Why should the Yusaf "Soul" then fear this well?

Close here your mouth and open it on that side

.So that your hymns may sound in Where- no-place!

be melting snow

Totally conscious, and apropos of nothing,

you come to see me.

Is someone here? I ask.The moon.

The full moon is inside your house.

My friends and I go running out into the street.

I'm in here, comes a voice from the house,

but we aren't listening

We're looking up at the sky.

My pet nightingale sobs like a drunk in the garden.

Ringdoves scatter with small cries,

Where, Where.It's midnight.

The whole neighborhood is up and out

in the street thinking,

The cat burglar has come back.

The actual thief is there too,

saying out loud,

Yes, the cat burglar is somewhere in this crowd

.No one pays attention.

Lo, I am with you always means when you look for God

,God is in the look of your eyes,

in the thought of looking,

nearer to you than your self,

or things that have happened to you

There's no need to go outside.

Be melting snow.Wash yourself of yourself.

A white flower grows in quietness.

Let your tongue become that flower.

go and die!

Go and die, go and die,

For this love go and die,

When in this love you die

You will let spirits fly.

Go and die, go and die,

Fear no death, don’t be shy

When in this dust you lie

Your spirit will soar up high.

Go and die, go and die,

Let this existence pass by

This existence is your tie

And prisoners you and I.

With an axe cut the tie

And this, your prison, defy

When your chains you untie

With Kings, identify.

Go and die, go and die,

The handsome King satisfy

For the Lord when you die

Your glories multiply

.
Go and die, go and die,

Like the tearful clouds, cry

When the cloud has run dry

You are the light of the eye.

Silence try, silence try

As close as you get to die

All your life, you apply

Your sigh and silence deny.

a thirsty fish

I don't get tired of you.

Don't grow weary

of being compassionate toward me!

All this thirst equipment

must surely be tired of me,

the water jar, the water carrier.

I have a thirsty fish in me

that can never find enough

of what it's thirsty for!

Show me the way to the ocean!

Break these half-measures,

these small containers.

All this fantasy and grief.

Let my house be drowned in the wave

that rose last night in the courtyard

hidden in the center of my chest.

Joseph fell like the moon into my well.

The harvest I expected was washed away.

But no matter.

A fire has risen above my tombstone hat.

I don't want learning, or dignity,or respectability.

I want this music and this dawn

and the warmth of your cheek against mine.

The grief-armies assemble,

but I'm not going with them.

This is how it always is

when I finish a poem.

A great silence comes over me,

and I wonder why I ever thought to use language!

translated by Coleman Barks

in every breath

in every breath

if you’re the center

of your own desires

you’ll lose the grace

of your beloved

but if in every breath

you blow away

your self claim

the ecstasy of love

will soon arrive

in every breath

if you’re the center

of your own thoughts

the sadness of autumn

will fall on you

but if in every breath

you strip naked

just like a winter

the joy of spring

will grow from within

all your impatience

comes from the push

for gain of patience

let go of the effort

and peace will arrive

all your unfulfilled desires

are from your greed

for gain of fulfillments

let go of them all

and they will be sent as gifts

fall in love with

the agony of love

not the ecstasy

then the beloved

will fall in love with you

Translation by Nader Khalili “Rumi, Fountain of Fire”Cal-Earth Press, 1994

the mirror

Let go of your worries
and be completely clear-hearted,
like the face of a mirror
that contains no images.
If you want a clear mirror,
behold yourself
and see the shameless truth,
which the mirror reflects.
If metal can be polished
to a mirror-like finish,
what polishing might the mirror
of the heart require?
Between the mirror and the heart
is this single difference:
the heart conceals secrets,
while the mirror does not.

The Divani Shamsi Tabriz, XIII

prayer

Oh Our Lord God

I breathe but for Thee,

and I stretch forth my spirit

towards Thee,

that I may recite Thy zikr abundantly,

commemorating Thee frequently.

Oh Our Lord God,

lay not upon me an ailment

that may make me forgetful to commorate Thee,

or lesson my yearning towards Thee,

or cut of the delight

I experience in reciting the litanies of Thy praise.

Grant me not a health

that may engender or increase in me

presumtuous ot thankless insolence.

For Thy Mercy’s sake

Oh Thou, Most Merciful of the Compassionate

.Amen

what's to be done

What is to be done, O Moslems?

for I do not recognize myself.

I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.

I am not of the East, nor of the West,

nor of the land, nor of the sea;

I am not of Nature's mint,

nor of the circling' heaven.

I am not of earth, nor of water,

nor of air, nor of fire;

I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust,

nor of existence, nor of entity.

I am not of India, nor of China,

nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsin

I am not of the kingdom of 'Iraqian,

nor of the country of Khorasan

I am not of the this world, nor of the next,

nor of Paradise, nor of Hell

I am not of Adam, nor of Eve,

nor of Eden and Rizwan.

My place is the Placeless,

my trace is the Traceless ; '

Tis neither body nor soul,

for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.

I have put duality away,

I have seen that the two worlds are one;

One I seek, One I know J One I see, One I call.

He is the first, He is the last,

He is the outward, He is the inward;

I know none other except 'Ya Hu' and 'Ya man Hu.

I am intoxicated with Love's cup,

the two worlds have passed out of my ken ;

I have no business save carouse and revelry.

If once in my life I spent a moment without thee,

From that time and from that hour I repent of my life.

If once in this world I win a moment with thee,

I will trample on both worlds,

I will dance in triumph for ever.

O Shamsi Tabriz, I am so drunken in this world,

That except of drunkenness and revelry I have no tale to tell.

From Divan-i Shams

about mevlana

ABOUT MAWLANA JALALUDDIN RUMI

Jalaluddin Rumi (may God sanctify his holy spirit) was one of the greatest Muslim saints and mystics.

He has also been hailed by Western scholars as the greatest mystical poet of all time.1 And popularized versions of his poetry have made him the best-selling poet in America in recent years

2 -- after a period of over 700 years, during which his fame has endured in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. The popularity of his poetry has spread in the West because of its heart-felt themes of lover-beloved mysticism, and its spiritual joy which seems to emanate even from the most distorted versions in English.

However, the popularization of his poetry has also been attained by a number of sacrifices:

(1) a lack of accuracy of the meanings of his words and teachings;

and (2), a deliberate minimization and evasion of verses in his poetry that reveal that he was a pious Muslim all his life, and a very devoted follower of the prayerful daily life exemplified by the Prophet Muhammad (may God pour blessings upon him).

He was born in what is now the nation of Tajikistan (the country north of Afghanistan) in town of Wakhsh , where his father worked as a Muslim preacher and scholar.

Wahksh was part of the cultural area of the ancient city of Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan), which had been a major center of Islamic learning for five hundred years before Rumi was born

His father, also a great mystic, or sufi master, was from Balkh.

He named his son Muhammad, but later called him by the additional name, Jalâlu 'd-deen ("the Glory of the Faith").

His full name was Jalâlu 'd-deen Muhammad bin (= son of) Husayn al-Balkhî. Later, when he moved to Anatolia (present- day Turkey) with his family, he became known as Jalâlu 'd-deen Muhammad al-Roomee.

This is because Anatolia had been called for centuries "Rûm" (a form of "Rome") which meant "the land of the Greeks" (who had long ruled the area from Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and later the Byzantine Empire).

In the East, he has always been known as Mawlânâ (pronounced "Mowlânâ" in Iran, India, and Pakistan; pronounced "Mevlana" in Turkey).

This means "our Master" in Arabic, and was traditionally a title given to Muslim scholars. However, due to his great fame, the respectful title "Mawlânâ" quickly came to refer primarily to Jalaluddin Rumi.

Only in the West has he been called "Rumi." Rumi must have memorized much or all of the Holy Qur'an when he was young, because the Mathnawi and his other poetry are filled with direct quotes in Arabic, Persian paraphrases, and references to Qur'anic verses.

He belonged to the Hanafi school of Islamic law, one of the four orthodox legal traditions of the Sunni branch of Islam.

This means that his daily religious behavior was faithful to the many details of the Hanafi tradition of how to follow the example of the Prophet Muhammad.

Rumi's first sufi master, Sayyid Burhânu 'd-dîn Termezî, was his father's leading sufi disciple who came to Anatolia after hearing of the death of Rumi's father.

Rumi was his sufi disciple for ten years, during part of which he was sent to Syria to obtain a traditional Islamic education.

Sayyid Burhanuddin was also a profound mystic who instilled in Rumi a love of Persian sufi poetry and ordered him to do a number of lengthy solitary prayer retreats.

rumi was 37 years of age when he met his second sufi master, Shamsu 'd-deen Muhammad al-Tabreezee (from Tabrîz), traditionally believed to have been about 60 years old.

It is now known that Shams was not an illiterate and "wild" dervish as previously thought by Western scholars, but had a solid Islamic education and was literate and fluent in Arabic as well as Persian.

And Shams himself belonged to another major orthodox school of Sunni Islamic law, called Shâfi`î.

3 In the "Discourses of Shams,"4 a collection of notes recorded by his disciples (among whom was Rumi's son, Sultân Walad), Shams reveals himself not only to be a profound mystic, but very knowledgeable about traditional and mystical interpretations of verses from the Qur'an and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.

And he criticized at least one famous sufi master for not following the daily religious behavior of the Prophet.

5 In a biography of Rumi, written by a disciple of Rumi's grandson, Aflâkî, along with many miracle stories, are many accounts of how Rumi prayed the five daily ritual Islamic prayers, fasted during the month of Ramadan, and did many extended voluntary fasts. And there are many accounts in which he voiced traditional Islamic beliefs on many topics.

But it is in the masterpiece of his later life, the Mathnawî-ye Ma`nawî (literally, "Rhymed Couplets of Deep Spiritual Meaning") that he reveals himself as both a profound mystic and an extremely devout Muslim.

And a study of his stories and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad reveals his veneration and love for the Holy Prophet and the Revelation that was sent to him from God Most High. Mawlânâ Jalâluddîn Muhammad al-Balkhî al-Rûmî died in 1273 and was buried next to his father's tomb in Konya, Turkey. The anniversary of his death was commemorated for centuries according to the Islamic lunar calendar, but has been celebrated in Turkey for the past 50 years according to the Western solar calendar on December 17.

On the night of this date, Mevlevis all over the world whirl in remembrance and glorification of God, and many kinds of groups read Rumi's poetry in their own languages.

**

The day I've died, my pall is moving on

-But do not think my heart is still on earth!

Don't weep and pity me: "Oh woe, how awful!"

You fall in devil's snare - woe, that is awful!

Don't cry "Woe, parted!" at my burial

-For me this is the time of joyful meeting!

Don't say "Farewell!" when I'm put in the grave

-A curtain is it for eternal bliss.

You saw "descending" -

now look at the rising!

Is setting dangerous for sun and moon?

To you it looks like setting, but it's rising;

The coffin seems a jail, yet it means freedom.

Which seed fell in the earth that did not grow there?

Why do you doubt the fate of human seed?

What bucket came not filled from out the cistern?

Why should the Yusaf "Soul" then fear this well?

Close here your mouth and open it on that side.

So that your hymns may sound in Where- no-place!

http://www.dar-al-masnavi.org/about-rumi.html