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Spring
has arrived!
by Rumi
Joyous spring has arrived and the Beloved's message
has come,
we are drunk with love and intoxicated and cannot be
still.
O my darling one, go forth to the garden, do not leave
the
beauties of the meadow in expectation.
Strangers from the Unseen have arrived in the meadow; go
forth, for it is a rule that "the newcomer is visited."*
Following your footsteps the rose has come into the
rosebower,
to greet and meet you the thorn has become soft of
cheek.
Cypress, give ear, for the lily in exposition of you has
become
all tongue by the bank of the river.
The bud was tightly knotted; your grace looses knots;
the rose
blossoms thanks to you, and scatters it petals over you.
You might say that it is the resurrection, that there
have raised
their heads from the earth those who rotted in December
and
January, the dead of yesteryear.
The seed which had died has now found life, the secret
which
earth held has now become revealed.
The bough which held fruit is glorying for joy, the root
which
had none is shamefast and ashamed.
After all, the trees of the spirit will become even so,
the tree of
excellent boughs and fortunate will be manifest.
The king of spring has drawn up his army and made his
provisions; the jasmine has seized the shield, the green
grass
Dhu `l-Faqar.
They say, "We will cut off the head of So-and-so like
chives;
behold that visibly enacted in the handiwork of the
Creator."
Yes; when the succour of divine assistance arrives,
Nimrod is
brought to destruction by a gnat*.
--Translation by A. J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 1"
Ode 1121, Divan-i Shams-i Tabriz
The University of Chicago Press, 1968
* Rumi quotes an Arabic rule of etiquette.
* Nimrod died of a gnat-bite, see Nicholson on Math.
I:1189.
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