The wheat that grows on my grave
by Rumi

If you bake bread with the wheat that grows on my grave
you'll become drunk with joy and
even the oven will recite ecstatic poems.
If you come to pay your respects
even my gravestone will invite you to dance
so don't come without your drum.
Don¹t be sad. You have come to God's feast.
Even death cannot stop my yearning
for the sweet kiss of my love.
Tear my shroud and wear it as a shirt,
the door will open and you'll hear
the music of your soul fill the air.
I am created from the ecstasy of love and
when I die, my essence will be released
like the scent of crushed rose petals.
My soul wants to leap and join
the towering soul of Shams.

           Translation by Azima Melita Kolin
                   and Maryam Mafi
              "Rumi: Hidden Music"
             
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     If wheat comes up from my grave (and) you bake bread        
from it, drunkenness will increase. (7102)
     The dough and the baker will become crazy (and) his
oven will sing verses like a drunkard.
     If you come to visit my tomb, its shape* will appear (to
you as) dancing.
     (O) brother, don't come without a tambourine to my            
tomb, since (being) full of sorrow is not suitable at the
banquet of God. (7105)
     The chattering chin is bound up and sleeping at the
tomb, (and) the mouth (of the spirit) is chewing the opium
and sweet deserts of the Beloved.
     Tear (something) from the shroud (and) tie it to (your
chest; (then) from (within) your soul, open the door of a
(wine) tavern.*
     From every direction (is) the sound of the quarreling and
the harp of the drunkards. Inevitably, from every activity,
(more) activity is born.
     God has created me from the wine of Love; even if
death grinds me (down to nothing), I am that very same Love.
     I am drunkenness, and my origin (is) the wine of Love. Tell
(me), what comes from wine except love? (7110)
     My spirit won't stand waiting for a moment: it will fly to  the
tower of the spirit of Shams-i Tabriz.*

                From "The Dîwân-é Kabîr (or Dîvân-é Shams-é Tabrîzî or Kulliyât-é Shams)               of Jalaluddin Rumi.
              Translated from the Persian by Ibrahim Gamard
                 (11/1998; revised 11/00)
              

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(7104) its shape: literally, my donkey's back. An idiom
meaning, my tomb's shape.
(7106) a (wine) tavern: since alcoholic beverages are strictly
forbidden in Islam, wine is a metaphor in Persian Sufi poetry. The
wine tavern is the Sufi gathering place, the drunkards are the
dervishes, the wine-server is often the Sufi master, the wine is the
(God-given) spiritual grace of the master, and drunkenness is
spiritual ecstasy-- a foretaste of the pure wine of Paradise (Quran
76:21; 83:25), itself a symbol of Heavenly bliss.
(7111) Shams-i Tabriz: literally, Shamsu d-Deen-é Tabreez, The
Sun of the Faith of Tabriz (a city now located in Iran).

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ze-khâk-é man agar gandom bar-ây-ad        7102
az-ân gar nân paz-î mastî fezây-ad

khamîr-o nân-bâ dêwâna gard-ad
tanûr-ash bayt mast-âna serây-ad

agar bar gûr-é man ây-î ziyârat
to-râ khar-poshta-am raqSân nomây-ad

ma-y-â bê-daf ba-gûr-é man, barâdar!  7105
ke dar bazm-é khodâ gham-gîn na-shây-ad

zanokh bar basta-wo dar gûr khofta
dahân afyûn-o nuql-é yâr khây-ad

be-darr-î z-ân kafan bar sîna band-î
kharâbâtê ze-jân-at dar-goshây-ad

ze-har sô bâng-é jang-o chang-é mast-ân
ze-har kârê ba-lâ-bud kâr zây-ad

ma-râ Haq az may-é `ishq âfrîd-ast
ham-ân `ishq-am agar marg-am be-sây-ad

man-am mastî-wo aSl-é man may-é `ishq    7110
be-gô, az may ba-joz mastî che ây-ad

ba-burj-é rûH-é shamsu d-dîn-é tabrîz
be-par-ad rûH-é man yak-dam na-pây-ad


   As part of the series of poems remembering Rumi's wedding with
the Beloved, Sunlight here offers Ghazal (Ode) 683, in a recent
translation by Kolin and Mafi, and in translation by Ibrahim Gamard. 
This ghazal was inscribed on Rumi's sarcophagus.

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" Paradise is encompassed with pain"
    by Rumi    

Your resolutions and purposes now and then are fulfilled
so that through hope your heart might form another intention
which He might once again destroy.
For if He were to keep you completely from success,
you would despair: how would the seed of expectation be sown?
If your heart did not sow that seed,
and then encounter barrenness,
how would it recognize its submission to the Divine will?
By their failures lovers are made aware of their Lord.
Lack of success is the guide to Paradise:
Pay attention to the tradition,
"Paradise is encompassed with pain."*

        ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

`Azm-hâ o qasd-hâ dar mâ-jarâ
gâh gâhi râst mi âyad torâ
Tâ be-tab`-e ân delet niyat konad
bâr-e digar niyatet-râ be-shekand
Var be-kolli bi morâdet dâshti
del shodi nawmid amal kay kâshti
Var ne-kâridi amal az `urish
kay shodi paydâ baru maqhurish
`sheqân az bi morâdihâ-ye khvish
bâ khabar gashtand az Mawlâ-ye khvish
Bi morâdi shod qelâvoz-e Behesht
"Huffat al-Jannat" shenaw ay khvosh-seresht

*Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad.

           -- Mathnawi III: 4462-4467
              Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
              "Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
              Threshold Books, 1996
              (Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

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Become like the sky
by Rumi


Whatever is steeped in grape juice will acquire
the flavor of the grape.
Whether it be carrots or apples or quinces and walnuts,
you will taste in them the delicious flavor of the grape.
When your knowledge is steeped in the light of faith,
then wayward people will receive light from it.
Whatever you say will be luminous,
for the sky never rains anything but pure water.
Become like the sky.  Become like the cloud and shed rain:
the spout rains, too, but it can't produce the rain.
The water in the spout is borrowed;
the water in the cloud and sea is original.
Your thought and reasoning resemble the spout;
inspiration and revelation are like the cloud and the sky.
The rain water engenders all the colors of the garden,
while the spout causes quarrels with your neighbors.

        ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Har cheh dar dushâb jushideh shavad
dar `aqideh ta`m-e dushâbesh bovad
Az gazar o ze sib o beh o ze gerdgân
lazzat-e dushâb yâbi to az ân
`Elm andar nur chon farghardeh shod
pas ze `elmet nur yâbad qawm-e ladd
Har cheh guyi bâshad ân ham nur-nâk
k-âsmân hargez na-bârad ghayr-e pâk
smân shaw abr shaw bârân be-bâr
nâvdân bâresh konad na-bud be-kâr
b andar nâvdân `âriyatist
âb andar abr o daryâ fetratist
Fekr o andisheh-st masal-e nâvdân
vahy o makshufast abr o âsmân
b-e bârân bâgh-e sad rang âvord
nâvdân hamsâyeh dar jang âvord

          -- Mathnawi V:2486-2493             
              Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
              Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance
              Threshold Books, 1996
              (Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)
courtesy: sunlight