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the Message Continues ... 12/148

 

Newsletter for December 2013

 

Article 1 - Article 2 - Article 3 - Article 4 - Article 5 - Article 6 - Article 7 - Article 8 - Article 9 - Article 10 - Article 11 - Article 12

 


Poems by Rumi

Stay awake for an entire night
night is the bringer of Gifts !

if you stay awake
for an entire night
watch out for a treasure
trying to arrive

you can keep warm
by the secret sun of the night
keeping your eyes open
for the softness of dawn

try it for tonight
challenge your sleepy eyes
do not lay your head down
wait for heavenly alms

night is the bringer of gifts
Moses went on a ten-year journey
during a single night
invited by a tree
to watch the fire and light

Mohammed too made his passage
during that holy night
when he heard the glorious voice
when he ascended to the sky

day is to make a living
night is only for love
commoners sleep fast
lovers whisper to God all night

all night long
a voice calls upon you
to wake up
in the precious hours

if you miss your chance now
when your body is left behind
your soul will lament
death is a life of no return

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE VIGIL

Don't go to sleep one night.
What you most want will come to you then.
Warmed by a sun inside, you'll see wonders.
Tonight, don't put your head down.

Be tough, and strength will come.
That which adoration adores
appears at night. Those asleep
may miss it. One night Moses stayed awake
and asked, and saw a light in a tree.

Then he walked at night for ten years,
until finally he saw the whole tree
illuminated. Muhammad rode his horse
through the night sky. The day is for work.
The night for love. Don't let someone
bewitch you. Some people sleep at night.

But not lovers. They sit in the dark
and talk to God, who told David,
"Those who sleep all night every night
and claim to be connected to us, they lie."

Lovers can't sleep when they feel the privacy
of the beloved all around them. Someone
who's thirsty may sleep for a little while,
but he or she will dream of water, a full jar
beside a creek, or the spiritual water you get
from another person. All night, listen
to the conversation. Stay up.
This moment is all there is.

Death will take it away soon enough.
You'll be gone, and this earth will be left
without a sweetheart, nothing but weeds
growing inside thorns.

I'm through. Read the rest of this poem
in the dark tonight.
Do I have a head? And feet?

Shams, so loved by Tabrizians, I close my lips.
I wait for you to come and open them.

-- Version by Coleman Barks
"The Essential Rumi"
Harper San Francisco, 1995.

The secret of love

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
than 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.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

`Eshq-râ bâ panj o bâ shesh kâr nist
maqsad-e u joz keh jazb-e Yâr nist
Bu keh fimâ ba`d dasturi resad
râz-hâ-ye goftani gofteh shavad
Bâ bayâni keh bovad nazdik-tar
zin kenâyât-e daqiq-e mostater
Râz joz bâ râzdân anbâz nist
râz andar gush-e monker râz nist

Mathnawi VI:5-8
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

The burning away the cloak of temporality

When the kernel swells the walnut shell,
or the pistachio, or the almond, the husk diminishes.
As the kernel of knowledge grows,
the husk thins and disappears,
because the lover is consumed by the beloved.
Since the quality of being sought is the opposite of seeking,
revelation and divine lightning
consume the prophet with fire.
When the attributes of the Eternal shine forth,
the cloak of temporality is burned away.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Qeshr-e jawz o fostoq o bâdâm ham
maghz chon âgandeshân shod pust kam
Maghz-e `elm afzud kam shod pustesh
z-ânke `âsheq-râ be-suzad dustesh
Vasf-e matlubi cho zedd-e tâlebist
vahy o barq-e nur suzandeh-ye nabist
Chon tajalli kard awsâf-e Qadim
pas be-suzad vasf-e hâdes-râ gelim

Mathnawi III: 1388-1391
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)


Joseph's Pit

Drowsy, awake to everything, out
of myself, inside you, the work of

your wine vat where the grapes are
invisible. All one sees is stained

feet tromping about, making a juice
different from ordinary grapes. This

wine gives no hangover. But don't
condemn yourself for living in left-

over stupor. Someone built and set
the hangover trap you find yourself
in! It's the bottom of Joseph's pit,
where he becomes medicine, a clean

tent, a field of stubble and shine.
Shams is winter daylight. I more

resemble the long night coming after.

-- Ghazal (Ode) 1457
Version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin
"The Glance"
Viking-Penguin, 1999

 

 

 

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