Reading Rumi

You are an Endless Treasure (11/5/2023)

You are an Endless Treasure (11/5/2023)

I wonder if your eyes are sleepy or evasive.

No, I swear, you are trying to deceive God.

 

You close your eyes like a merchant

who reaches his gold once he falls asleep.

 

You have extended a chain, setting up endless traps.

You tightly restrain some, while you loosen the bondage of others.

 

As a good deed, you kill your innocent lovers

and pray in front of your martyrs’ graves.

 

Sometimes, like a cupbearer, you take the mind away from the head.

Sometimes, like a musician, you fill that head with melodies.

 

You play the ney of separation.

You play Iraq’s ney, making Buselik similar to Hicaz.*

 

You make the hearts and souls of poor ones

and the wounded hearts of captive ones

treasures of supplication

just with the alms of your beauty.

 

You tear the curtain of the firmament.

You are coy with the coyness of the Sultan.

You live with the great splendor of Eyaz,,**

stealing the crowns of sultans.

 

You are my love.

Does Love have any shape or form?

You dress in this shape. You are just joking.

 

You are an endless treasure.

No sultan’s seal could be put on such a treasure.

Even if a seal were put on one side,

you would quickly cut through it.

 

Submerge into this wealth and be silent.

How long will you be screaming,

clinging to hope and greed

while you sit next to this treasure?

*Iraq/ Buselik/ Hicaz  Tunes of Near Eastern music.

**Eyaz  The name of the slave of Gazne’s Mahmut, used symbolically to mean auspicious.

Divan-i Kebir, Volume 21, Ghazal 114, verses 1236-1246, pages 253-254.

One Day (10/29/2023)

One Day (10/29/2023)

One day, your heart will take you

to the One who has caught your heart.

One day, your soul will take you to the Beloved.

Don’t let go of the hem of the robe of your pain.

One day, your pain will take you to the remedy.

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 1, page 494

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (apprx.pub.fall2023), Rubai 1056, Volume 2.

Aren’t You Worth Hundreds of Pearls? (10/15/223)

Aren’t You Worth Hundreds of Pearls? (10/15/2023)

I am the wind. You are a leaf.

When I blow, how could you remain still?

If I give you an order, how could you ignore it?

Since I have thrown a stone and broken your jar,

aren’t you worth hundreds of oceans, hundreds of pearls?

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 4, page 484.

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations, Rubai 1036, Volume 3.

Become the Essence of Love (10/1/2023)

Become the Essence of Love (10/1/2023)

If you turn around Saturn,

you become Saturn.

If you turn around a saint, you become a saint.

If you turn around the mine of Truth, you become a ruby.

If you turn around the Beloved,

you become the Essence of Love.

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 4, page 481.

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, the Ergin Translations (apprx.pub.fall2023), Rubai 1031, Volume 2.

You Have Me in Return (9/24/2023)

You Have Me in Return (9/24/2023)

Is there no music, no merrymaking for this lover

to help him attain his desire, to get his troubles to settle down?

 

In the morning, because of his separation,

he was frightened by daily troubles.

But at night, he found mercy from His moon. Continue reading “You Have Me in Return (9/24/2023)”

About Old Age (9/17/2023)

About Old Age (9/17/2023)

Sometimes You rip the curtain.

Sometimes You repair it.

Sometimes You get along with me.

Sometimes You break me apart and burn me.

I am learning about youth in my old age.

O people of the world, I can advise you about old age.

Rubailer (2016), Rubai 2, page 481.

The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (approx.pub.fall2023), Rubai 1030, Volume 3.

If You Were… You Would… (9/10/2023)

If You Were… You Would… (9/10/2023)

If you were out of your self like we are,

if you were also drunk,

you would have already broken the halo around the moon,

ascended the heights of the sky and sat there. Continue reading “If You Were… You Would… (9/10/2023)”