May 2022 - Reading Rumi

Pay Attention (5/29/2022)

Even if your heart becomes tired and frustrated,

If you really want to know

the essence of insanity on the way of Love,

One cannot reflect our fire,

nor can one articulate the secrets of our heart.

Our early morning sighs are not confidants with whom we share our troubles,

nor is a friendly soul even to be found to hear those sighs.

We are not the pearl which has been found in the sea,

nor are we a sea which ever rests.

We are not the meaning which comes from words,

nor are we words which can be said.

Language is like a canal for meanings.

But, how could such a sea fit in this canal?

Every piece of the soul’s world makes a new world,

but such a new world could never fit in someone’s mouth.

Divan-i Kebir, Volume 19, ghazal 269, verses 2756-2761, page 121.

When every day infamy spreads over an entire age,

the one who becomes famous is not a courageous man.

If you are looking for a pearl, dive deep into the ocean.

Do not bother with the foam on the shore.

Rubailer (2016), rubai 3, page 186.

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (apprx.pub. 10/2022), rubai 373, volume 1.

O cupbearer, take some of the weight off of the drunks.

It’s hard to see anyone of value

who isn’t being crushed by troubles and worries.

O rose-faced, cypress-statured Beauty,

come to the rose garden.

You won’t find anything which gives better shade than the cypress. Continue reading “Like the Sun (5/1/2022” →