SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY !
 by Rumi
By the mercy of God, Paradise has eight door
one of those is the door of repentance, Son !
All the others are sometimes open, sometimes shut,
but the door of repentance is never closed.
Come seize the opportunity: the door is open;
carry your baggage there at once.

Hast Jannat-râ ze rahmat hasht dar
yek dar tawbeh-st zân hasht ay pesar
n hameh gah bâz bâshad gah farâz
 vân dar-e tawbeh na-bâshad joz keh bâz
Hin ghanimat dâr dar bâzast zud
 rakht ânjâ kesh be-kuri hasud

Mathnawi IV: 2506-2508
 Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
 "Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
 Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra
 

Your true substance is concealed in falsehood
by Rumi

Your true substance is concealed in falsehood,
like the taste of butter in buttermilk.
Your falsehood is this perishable body;
your truth is that exalted spirit.
For many years, this buttermilk of the body
is visible and manifest, while the butter, which is the spirit,
is perishing and ignored within it,
until God sends a prophet, a chosen servant,
a shaker of the buttermilk in the churn,
who skillfully shakes it, so that you might know
your true self which was hidden.

Jawhar-e sedqet khafi dar dorugh
hamcho ta`m-e rawghan andar ta`m-e dugh
n dorughet in tan-e fâni bovad
râstet ân jân-e rabbâni bovad
Sâl-hâ in dugh-e tan paydâ o fâsh
rawghan-e jân andaru fâni o lâsh
Tâ ferestad Haqq rasuli bandeh-'i
dugh-râ dar khomreh jonbânandeh-'i
Tâ be-jonbânad be-hanjâr o be-fann
tâ be-dânam man keh panhân bud-e man

 Mathnawi IV: 3030-3034
     Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
 "Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

            

THE GLITTER OF THIS FANTASY
by Rumi

Now comes the final merging,
    Now comes everlasting beauty.
Now comes abundant grace,
    Now comes boundless purity.

The infinite treasure is shining,
The mighty ocean is roaring,
The morning of grace has come -
Morning? - No!
This is the eternal Light of God!

Who occupies this beautiful form?
Who is the ruler and the prince?
Who is the wise man? -
    Nothing but a veil.

The wine of love removes these veils.
Drink with your head and your eyes -
Both your eyes,
and both your heads!

Your head of clay is from the earth,
Your pure awareness is from heaven.
O how vast is that treasure
    which lies beneath the clay!
Every head you see depends on it!

Behind every atom of this world
    hides an infinite universe.

O Saaqi, free us from the facade of this world.
Bring wine - barrels full!
Our eyes see too straight -
    straight past the truth!

The Light of Truth shines from Tabriz.
It is beyond the beyond
    yet it is here,
    shining through every particle of this world.

Ghazal (Ode) 464
Version by Jonathan Star
"Rumi - In the Arms of the Beloved "
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York 1997

Deliberation
 
God brought the earth and the heavenly spheres into existence
through the deliberation of six days
even though He was able through "Be, and it is"*
to bring forth a hundred earths and heavens.
Little by little until forty years of age
that Sovereign raises the human being to completion,
although in a single moment He was able
to send fifty flying up from nonexistence.
Jesus by means of one prayer could make the dead spring to
life:
is the Creator of Jesus unable
to suddenly bring full-grown human beings
fold by fold into existence?
This deliberation is for the purpose of teaching you
that you must seek God slowly, without any break.
A little stream which moves continually
doesn't become tainted or foul.
From this deliberation are born felicity and joy:
this deliberation is the egg;
good fortune is the bird that comes forth.

Bâ ta'anni gasht mawjud az Khodâ
tâ be-shesh ruz in zamin o charkh-hâ
Var nah qâder bovad ku "kun fa-yakûn"*
sad zamin o charkh âvordi berun
dami-râ andak andak ân Homâm
tâ chehel sâlesh konad mard-e tamâm
Garcheh qâder bovad k-andar yek nafs
az `adam parân konad panjâh kas
`Isâ qâder bud ku az yek do`â
bi tavaqqof bar-jahânad mordeh-râ
Khâleq-e `Isâ be-na-tavânad keh U
bi tavaqqof mardom ârad tu be-tu
In ta'anni az pay-e ta`lim-e tost
keh talab âhesteh bâyad bi sokost
Ju yeki kuchek keh dâyem mi ravad
nah najs gardad nah gandeh mi shavad
Zin ta'anni zâyad eqbâl o sorur
in ta'anni bayzeh dawlat chon toyur

*Yâ Sin, 82

Mathnawi III: 3500-3508
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
 "Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

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