How can you know the design of the Designer,
the paint of the Painter?
You are mere form and flesh.
How could you possibly know Soul? Continue reading “Mere Form and Flesh (10/10/2021)”
Mere Form and Flesh (10/10/2021)
Category: Rumi Poetry
Not Like Your Halfway Happiness (10/3/2021)
We have neither silk garments nor silver, but we are happy.
In trouble and fear, we are content.
We are drunk on the wine of eternal submission.
This is not like your halfway happiness.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 3, page 343
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (approx. pub. 5/2022), Rubai 732, Volume 2
This Heart (9/26/2021)
O One who takes the hearts of lovers as hostage,
don’t shed the blood of lovers.Go away.
Look at the traces of blood on every road.
Hear the bloody yells everywhere. Continue reading “This Heart (9/26/2021)”
About Death (9/19/2021)
Your soul is a guest of your body for only a couple of days.
Yet, you have become so attached to this Earth
that you don’t want to listen when I talk about death.
Your soul is longing for that mansion –
that “death before death.”*
Unfortunately, your body’s donkey
has fallen asleep in the middle of the road.
*Total destruction of the self before the death of the body.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 2, page 80.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (approx. pub. date 3/2022), Rubai 108, Volume 1.
This is Expected of You (9/12/2021)
The mind is a roadblock on the journey, O son.
The road is wide open.
Untie this bond. Tear it, O son. Continue reading “This is Expected of You (9/12/2021)”
Only God Knows (9/5/2021)
We keep turning like the sky in our longing for the Moon.
Only God knows our business.
Considering all the things which are happening in this world,
we wonder how smart people can keep their minds in their heads.
Yet, they wonder about our exuberance.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 335.
The Rubais of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (pub. approx. 5/22), Rubai 721, volume 2.
This Glory (8/29/2021)
O Beloved, we are Your guest tonight.
Wait! Why did we say, “tonight?”
We are Yours day and night, every day and every night. Continue reading “This Glory (8/29/2021)”
The Treasure (8/22/2021)
We are the treasure of God’s secrets.
We are the endless ocean full of pearls.
We are the space between the Moon and the fish.
We are the One who sits on the throne of the Sultan.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #2, page 339.
A Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (tent. pub. 12/2021)
Rubai #719, Volume 2.
See My Generosity? (8/15/2021)
Why are you sorry if you lose your profit, your capital?
Here I am. See My generosity?
Don’t fall into despair.
If the world disappears
and the sea becomes a drop of dew, who cares?
If it passes out and drops to the ground,
that doesn’t mean it has left My hand.
The world is a fish. Absence is an ocean.
There are so many fights in the heart of the fish.
But, I fish without a line.
Even if a fish disappears, I will still catch it.
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 15, Ghazal 98, verses 1116-1118, page 221.
This Dog (8/8/2021)
I thought I could control the dog of my selfishness
by putting on him the chain of repentance.
Although he is getting tired and old,
whenever he sees a carcass,
he breaks the chain and attacks.
What can I do with this dog?
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #2, page 338.
A Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (tent. pub. 12/21), Rubai 717, Volume 2.